The Japanese team has already said that they will quit F1 rather than accept an enforced budget cap and technical restrictions compared to new teams.
F1’s governing body, the FIA, have yet to respond to the teams’ entries but tension is high and peace has not broken out. It will not be known until June 12 exactly which teams have been given the 13 grid spots for next year, but nine of the existing F1 teams have entered on condition that there is no budget cap next season and are now awaiting a response from the FIA.
“We believe that everybody has to compete under the same rules,” said John Howett, Toyota’s team principal who is also vice-chairman of the Formula One Teams Association. “I don’t believe that anybody objects to new teams joining the series.
“ I don’t think, at the moment, that there is any discussion of a budget cap. A number of us feel that unless the actual conditions are satisfied then we have to seriously consider alternatives.”
The teams are demanding that they should sign a new Concorde Agreement, which is their on-going bible of rules, by June 12 as one of their conditions.
Ferrari principal Stefano Domenicali has insisted that his team’s entry after previously threatening to pull out did not indicate a willingness to have a budget cap next season.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “The request to make the 2009 regulations the starting point means there will be no budget cap.”