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Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said he was not prepared to see the sport collapse in the face of the breakaway movement from eight teams.
“I have given 35 years of my life and more to Formula One. My marriage broke up because of Formula One, so I am sure as hell not going to let things disintegrate over what is, in the end, basically nothing,” he told British newspaper the Times.
“If you analyse the problems, there aren’t any that can’t be easily solved.”
Ecclestone said that if the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) went ahead with their decision to create a breakaway series, only disaster would follow.
“If that started, everybody would be suing everybody else and there would be no other series.
“There would be nothing. It would be finished – it would be a total disaster.
“Everyone would spend a fortune on lawyers and nothing will happen.”
Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Brawn GP, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, under the FOTA banner, said Thursday they would not sign up to next year’s world championship and would start their own series in 2010.
It was the culmination of a bitter dispute over plans by Max Mosley, president of F1’s ruling body the FIA, to introduce a budget cap. The FIA has now threatened legal action against the teams.
Ecclestone also defended Mosley’s cost-cutting plans as part of an attempt to save the sport, and said that if the teams committed themselves to Formula One for the next five years, he might drop the plans.
“We want the teams to commit. I’ve always said I don’t care what they spend as long as they commit,” Ecclestone said.
Reports from the British Grand Prix suggest Mosley is prepared to drop plans for legal action and instead seek settlement with the rebel F1 teams.
After another momentous day of rumour and counter-rumour during which German Sebastian Vettel raced to victory at Silverstone, paddock insiders were predicting a peaceful closure to the dispute that has split the sport.
“There won’t be any writ, I think we would rather talk than litigate,” Mosley was quoted telling Italian television station Sky Italia shortly before the start of Sunday’s race.
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