Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone appears to have sided with Ferrari in a budget cap battle with Max Mosley, the president of the international racing federation FIA.
In an interview with The Times, Ecclestone predicted that the 40-million-pound budget cap set by Mosley, above which teams would have more performance restrictions, would be raised.
However, The Times observed that Mosley and Ecclestone ''may being playing a classic 'good cop, bad cop' routine'' to impose their will on the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), which is headed by Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
FIA wants greater restrictions on the teams while Ecclestone, who holds the commercial rights to Formula 1, does not want to give them a greater share of the sport's earnings, as FOTA has demanded.
Montezemolo and Mosley have been verbally sparring with the Ferrari chief hinting at a possibility of some teams, like Ferrari and Renault, breaking away from FIA, while Mosley claimed at the weekend that Formula 1 could survive without Ferrari, which has been present in the sport since it was created in 1950.
''The trouble with Max is he's not capable of wrapping up things nicely with a pink ribbon and things. He wants to put it in an old cardboard box and tie it with string,'' Ecclestone told The Times.
''The trouble with Luca is that you shouldn't let Max ever be in a position where he can start a debate or an argument. He's reasonably clever and you won't win. Even if you do win, it's like you being in the audience and I have the microphone. You can say something smart but I won't give you the microphone - it's as easy as that''.
