Mosley warns teams as he reconsiders future (2nd Roundup)

Hamburg - Formula One faces more turmoil as world motorsport supremo Max Mosley said he is reconsidering his future in anger about the team organization FOTA. Ferrari confirmed on Friday said that the FIA president Mosley has sent a letter to Ferrari and FOTA chairman Luca Di Montezemolo in which he said FOTA deliberately misled the media on how a settlement was reached Wednesday over a budget cap row. News reports also said that Mosley has written another letter, to the World Motor Sport Council of FIA, in which he reiterated his fear that FOTA aimed to take over the sport. On Wednesday, at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, a group of eight rebel teams led by Ferrari ended a breakaway threat and agreed to cut costs. The FIA withdrew a budget cap plan and Mosley said he would not seek another term as FIA boss in October. A Ferrari spokesman told the German Press Agency dpa that di Montezemolo has responded to the letter, saying that FOTA accepts the agreement which Mosley announced on Wednesday but giving no further details. Mosley is said to be upset that it was reported he was forced out of office, will have no more role in FIA from October onwards and that FIA Senate head Michel Boeri was in charge of F1 with immediate effect. 'If you wish the agreement we made to have any chance of survival, you and FOTA must immediately rectify your actions. You must correct the false statements which have been made and make no further such statements,' he said. Mosley reportedly sent the letter before a Thursday FOTA news conference in which he demanded an apology. FOTA issued no apology but mentioned Mosley's role in the agreement and also called for a future FIA leader to be an independent person. 'Given your and FOTA's deliberate attempt to mislead the media, I now consider my options open. At least until October, I am president of the FIA with the full authority of that office,' Mosley warned. 'After that it is the FIA member clubs, not you or FOTA, who will decide on the future leadership of the FIA.' 'We made a deal yesterday in Paris to end the recent difficulties in Formula One. A fundamental part of this was that we would both present a positive and truthful account to the media,' said Mosley. 'I was therefore astonished to learn that FOTA has been briefing the press that Mr Boeri has taken charge of Formula 1, something which you know is completely untrue; that I had been forced out of office, also false; and, apparently, that I would have no role in the FIA after October, something which is plain nonsense, if only because of the FIA statutes. 'Furthermore, you have suggested to the media that I was a 'dictator,' an accusation which is grossly insulting to the 26 members of the World Motor Sport Council ... not to mention the representatives of the FIA's 122 countries who have democratically endorsed everything I and my World Motor Sport Council colleagues have done during the last 18 years,' he said. The autosport magazine quoted Mosley as telling the World Motor Sport Council: 'It is disappointing that Montezemolo did not keep his part of the bargain we made last Wednesday.' He said that 'FOTA falsely claimed that they had ousted me and imposed their will on the FIA' and gave a warning for the future. 'No doubt we face a difficult period. This may well result in short-term problems in Formula One. It is possible that FOTA will set up an independent series. That is their right, provided they do so under the International Sporting Code. 'But the Formula One World Championship will continue to be run by the FIA as it has been for 60 years. The letters could reopen the row between FIA and FOTA which started when the FIA announced the budget cap of around 60 million dollars in mid-April. The war of words culminated when the eight FOTA teams announced a breakaway series last week Friday.