Ferrari adamant F1 will have no budget cap

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Ferrari's decision to sign up conditionally for next year's Formula One championship does not imply any eventual acceptance of a budget cap, team boss Stefano Domenicali said on Saturday.

"Absolutely not," he told the Ferrari website (www.ferrari.com).

"The request to make the 2009 regulations the starting point, means there will be no budget cap."

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), which numbers nine teams following the suspension of Williams, submitted a joint entry on Friday dependent on certain conditions being met by June 12.

One was that all parties sign an updated version of the confidential Concorde Agreement governing the sport and another that the regulations for 2010 be those currently in use with some modifications rather than ones published by the governing FIA last month.

Champions Ferrari had threatened to quit Formula One after 60 unbroken years of competition if the International Automobile Federation (FIA) did not rewrite 2010 rules that included an optional 40 million pound ($64.14 million) budget cap.

Their decision to enter, even if conditional, was seen as greatly reducing the likelihood of their departure although not yet concluding hostilities.

Asked what would happen if the conditions were not met, Domenicali replied: "The answer is simple: The entries from the nine teams will be invalid."