REPORT: Formula One teams, drivers get serious on break-away series

It's all or nothing for the Formula One Teams Association. The body representing the majority of the teams is still in the process of negotiating with the FIA over the proposed drastic budget cuts, but insists that the FIA has to take all of them or none of them. If Max Mosley's budget cuts are imposed as planned, Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull and Toro Rosso say they will all pick up and leave, and take with them many of the sport's best drivers. Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton, along with Felipe Massa, Nick Heidfeld, Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli have all pledged to follow their teams out from under the FIA's purview. But where will they all go? To a new break-away series.

The teams have threatened to leave the FIA Formula One World Championship before, but this time, things are getting serious. According to the latest reports, FOTA has already begun negotiations with Dorna Sports in anticipation of Mosley's rejection of their counter-proposal. The chief executive of Dorna, the company that runs F1's two-wheeled counterpart MotoGP, has reportedly agreed to run the new series for the break-away F1 teams. A few years ago, Dorna managed to wrestle the rule-making authority away from the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme – the FIA's motorcycling equivalent – and place it in the hands of the manufacturers. That's just what FOTA is looking for, and if Mosley sticks to his guns, it could be exactly what they'll get.

[Source: F1-Live | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]