Bernie hints at F1 break from Mosley

FORMULA One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has admitted for the first time that a breakaway championship, removed from the influence of the FIA and its under-fire president Max Mosley, could become a reality.

Ecclestone, who called for Mosley to step down after lurid tabloid allegations about his private life surfaced, has repeatedly distanced himself from rumours of a Formula One breakaway but now appears to have accepted it as a possibility.

Ecclestone has been strongly advocating the signing of a new concord agreement between F1 teams, his own Formula One Management and the FIA to set out the guidelines under which the sport is run.

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

"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 concord agreement," he said.

"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."