Todt's remarks were misreported, according to the FIA

Motorsport's governing body the FIA has corrected reports that new teams will be able to miss up to three races.

FIA president Jean Todt was quoted on Tuesday saying that the new Concorde Agreement, Formula 1's constitution, said teams could "skip three races".

But an FIA statement said that was not the case and that teams were contracted to appear in all the races.

Any failure to take part would leave the relevant team open to a penalty from the race stewards.

An FIA spokesman said that Todt's remarks, which came at a lunch for national newspaper correspondents, had been misreported by some media.

The news comes as F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone repeated his claims this week that newcomers US F1 and Campos Meta 1 will not make the opening Bahrain race on 14 March.

US F1 and Campos are two of the four new teams, the others being Lotus and Virgin, and are the only teams with entries for 2010 who have not yey run their cars.

606: DEBATE How bad is it going to look if four cars are missing from the grid but show up two or three races into the season? sunshine_n034

US F1 boss Peter Windsor has insisted to BBC Sport that his team will be at the season's opening race in Bahrain.

Campos boss Adrian Campos admitted to the BBC last week that he was still short of the required funding, but said he was "working very hard" to ensure his team would be on the grid.

Neither US F1 nor Campos have named a complete driver line-up.

US F1 confirmed they are still working on the scheduling for the first shakedown of their car, which is due to hit the track in Alabama this month.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version