Formula One teams united in lack of concord with Mosley

Toyota, the second largest car manufacturer in the world, are annoyed that Ferrari, commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, president of FIA - the game's governing body - unilaterally agreed to extend the Concorde Agreement, the sport's rules and regulations, beyond 2007 up until 2012 without consulting anyone else. They made their view clear yesterday when the team boss Tsutomi Tomita attacked the manner in which the three parties had acted.

Toyota, the second largest car manufacturer in the world, are annoyed that Ferrari, commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, president of FIA - the game's governing body - unilaterally agreed to extend the Concorde Agreement, the sport's rules and regulations, beyond 2007 up until 2012 without consulting anyone else. They made their view clear yesterday when the team boss Tsutomi Tomita attacked the manner in which the three parties had acted.

"Toyota were not happy with the action taken by FIA, FOM and Ferrari last week as there was no prior consultation with any of the other teams on such an agreement," he said. "Toyota's position has already been put forward in the past. We want to retain F1 as the pinnacle of motorsport, to reduce costs while retaining the technical challenge, to not impose unnatural restrictions on the technology used in F1 car development, to continue to provide excitement to fans and importantly to adopt a positive attitude towards independent teams through offering technical support and supplying engines."

Further signs of dissatisfaction among the teams surfaced yesterday when Ferrari's Jean Todt and Ross Brawn turned up to see Mosley in a meeting to which all 10 teams had been invited. The other nine had agreed on Wednesday not to attend, and instead suggested to Mosley that future rules would better be discussed after the first three races of the season and research into what the the public want to see has been undertaken.

McLaren-Mercedes, BMW-Williams, Renault, BAR-Honda, Toyota, Sauber Petronas, Red Bull Racing, Midland Jordan and Minardi allied together to propose changes in Brazil last October and have since, against all expectation, remained united.

The teams have also taken legal advice which has suggested to them that the FIA - Mosley - cannot implement changes for 2008 while the existing Concorde Agreement is still in force without going via the F1 Commission. Since there has to be a year's notice of major change, they argue that Mosley could not implement it until 2009 at the earliest, unless he puts his ideas before the F1 Commission and receives their mandate to proceed. Since many manufacturers are represented on the commission, that is unlikely to happen.