F1 breakaway championship is still a possibility, admits supremo Ecclestone

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Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has reiterated that a breakaway championship, removed from the influence of the FIA and its under-fire
president Max Mosley, could yet become a reality.

Ecclestone, who called for Mosley to step down after lurid tabloid allegations about his private life surfaced, appears to accept the possibility of a breakaway F1 championship.

The chief executive officer of F1's commercial arm has been strongly advocating the signing of a new Concorde agreement between the teams, his own management and the FIA to set out the guidelines under which the sport is run.

Making a point: Bernie Ecclestone

But the deal remains unsigned, with disagreements about its content rife between the interested parties.

The fact that no such deal has been tied up, it appears to have informed Ecclestone's thinking with regard to a potential move away from FIA jurisdiction.

"What the FIA doesn't have, which is the most important thing for them, is an agreement with the teams they would have with the Concorde Agreement," he told
The Times.

"The teams can do what they like. At the moment what we are trying to do, to keep the sponsors happy, is say we can't break away but it could well be that that will happen.

"There is no agreement between the teams and the FIA. There is a commercial agreement that has been signed by the teams and Formula One Management, so the teams can do what they like."

Eccelstone, who met with team principals ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix apparently to discuss the Concorde agreement - he denied at the time that there were talks about a breakaway championship - also appeared to warn Mosley that a withdrawal by F1 from the FIA umbrella could be a potentially harmful to the governing body's future.

"I am responsible to our investors who have an awful lot of money invested,"
he continued.

"And I am responsible to all the teams and manufacturers, who have an awful
lot of money invested. Max is responsible to the people in wherever who have no
money invested and nor has the FIA got money invested.

"All they've got is the money that comes from Formula One. If there was no Formula One, the FIA would be in serious trouble."

Mosley has come in for plenty of criticism since the stories regarding his private life were first printed but was reaffirmed as FIA chief after winning a 61% majority at an extraordinary general meeting of members in Paris earlier this month.