Alonso says drivers could turn their backs on F1

Formula 1 drivers have warned that their teams will go it alone if the sport's budget cap row is not resolved.

F1's governing body the FIA wants strict spending limits, with technical advantages handed to teams who sign up.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli said: "I know that in the next week something should budge, must move, otherwise there will inevitably be a split."

Renault's two-time champion Fernando Alonso said: "I prefer to race in any other category before the new F1."

Both were speaking after a meeting between drivers and team principals representing eight members of the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota).

Fota now excludes Williams and Force India after they submitted unconditional entries to sign up through to 2012.

Ferrari hopeful over budget-cap row

The meeting in Istanbul ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix comes just five days before the FIA confirms the list of teams due to compete in F1 next season.

FIA president Max Mosley is determined to cut costs and attract fresh blood, with 11 prospective new entrants submitting bids to compete under a £40m budget cap.

Toyota Motorsport president John Howett confirmed on Friday that Fota had discussed a breakaway series as "a worst-case scenario".

Trulli, at 34 one of F1's senior drivers, said: "At the moment we have to wait and see because Fota wants to reach a solution together with the FIA.

"However, all of us drivers understand very well which is the right side to be on."

He added: "Mosley must understand there are some things that cannot happen.

"The [FIA's] rules for 2010 are not good because F1 must remain the number one sport in the world, with great technology and with the manufacturers.

MOLE BLOG Some F1 insiders believe Mosley has no intention of going ahead with the compromise he brokered with Fota in Monaco

"With these rules we are completely out. They are inadequate and we [the drivers] share the same vision as Fota."

Alonso claimed the teams "have done their maximum" to reach a compromise, and said: "Now the ball is in the FIA's court."

The Spaniard added: "If the manufacturers cannot sign up for F1 and they organise a parallel championship, that would be the most interesting.

"Then you would see the technology and the fastest cars in the world and, in the end, that's where the drivers want to be."

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