Breakaway F1 series threat; Mosley predicts it will be business as normal.

MAX Mosley expects the Formula One world championship to begin as usual in March with the eight FOTA teams involved, writes IAN PARKES.

The FIA yesterday issued legal proceedings against Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Brawn GP, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso following their announcement they are to start a breakaway series. That, in part, was in retaliation to Ferrari instigating arbitration proceedings on Monday to protect their contractual rights with the FIA.

As of now, the world of Formula One is poised to sink into the mire of litigation, and given FIA president Mosley's legal background, there is a real threat it will be a bloody and long battle.

Despite the stalemate between the two sides, and there appearing to be no way back, Mosley is convinced there will be peace in our time - drawing on his own past experience.

"Always with these things in the end there is a compromise because they can't afford not to run in the Formula One world championship, and we would be very reluctant to have that without them," remarked Mosley.

"But I don't take this as seriously as some people do because it is all posturing and posing. It will all stop some time between the beginning of 2010 and March 2010 with the first race in

Australia. It will all settle down and everybody will go racing.

"You have to remember we did all of this back in 1981. Bernie and I ran a rebel series. We started the World Federation of Motorsport, had a calendar of races, and we actually ran what the FIA described as a pirate race. But in the end we settled with the FIA and it was all peace in our time. We went much further than these people at the moment are talking about." Mosley, who is due to stand down as president in October, insists the row is encouraging him to stay on longer.

He said: "I don't want to go on for too long, but the difficulty the teams are putting me in is that even if I wanted to stop in October, they are making it very difficult for me to do so.

"Quite apart from maybe being too old, you've not that much longer where you are fit and well and you can do all sorts of things, and you don't really want to work that hard.

"But what you can't do is walk away from an organisation in the middle of a crisis." Mosley maintains the teams are trying to wrest control of the sport from the FIA, and the financial side from supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

That is not the case according to the teams, who simply want good governance, as Mosley attempts to get them to sign up for 2010 with no definitive regulations in place.

It has become an unholy mess, with those suffering the most being the fans, recognised by Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner.

"A huge amount of effort has been made by the teams to try and find a compromise because at the end of the day we do have a duty of care to the people we represent - employees, fans, sponsors, public," Horner said..

CAPTION(S):

BESIEGED The media pack crowds out Bernie Ecclestone.