Mosley given Briatore backing

Renault chief Flavio Briatore has praised under-fire FIA president Max Mosley and suggested the threat of a breakaway series can be averted.

Briatore claims Formula One’s warring factions are still able to come together and discuss a future beyond 2007, when the ruling Concorde Agreement expires and a breakaway championship is threatened.

Renault are part of that Grand Prix World Championship group but Briatore insists a split is far from inevitable, proposing a solution which would see three banks forced out of the sport.

The banks own the majority of Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One empire but Briatore hopes to leave them out in the cold when a new Concorde Agreement is finalised.

He said: “All the people involved in Formula One should get together around a table like adults, and start talking to each other and working together as soon as possible.

“We all know what Formula One needs. We need unity, a strong FIA that supervises everybody, but also more money for the teams and manufacturers than we have at the moment.

“The FIA has nothing to do with that, it is Bernie Ecclestone, but he only has 25% of the shares. The rest belongs to the banks.

“In 2008, it is possible to create a brand new Formula One series that includes the teams, Bernie Ecclestone and with the FIA as a regulator, without the banks.”

The GPWC group have been heavily critical of Mosley, the president of motorsport’s world governing body, in recent months but Briatore hopes to appease the Englishman and his allies Ferrari.

The world champions are the only team to have signed up with the FIA and Ecclestone for 2008 onwards but Briatore is confident a compromise can be reached to keep the sport united.

“Max Mosley has done a very good job in recent years,” he said. “He is an intelligent, capable man who has good ideas.

“That doesn’t mean that everything he suggests is perfect but I am in agreement with his most important points.

“The spectators are the people who matter most, and we must improve Formula One to make it safer and more entertaining. To do that, we need a strong FIA president like Mosley as a regulator.

“But for the unity and the attractiveness of the show, we need Ferrari too.

“If Ferrari sees the new series working, then I am sure that will get rid of their doubts and they will join it.”