Mosley hints he may stand for 5th term

Max Mosley has confirmed that he intends to stand for a fifth term as FIA president after Formula One teams announced plans to breakaway from the sport over an ongoing dispute over a planned budget cap for teams.

Mosley said in October that he would not stand for president again after winning a confidence vote last year. But with eight teams ready to start a rival series, Mosley said he felt the need to continue and laid out a bullish stance in a letter sent to FIA members on Tuesday.

"Over recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that one of the objectives of the dissident teams is that I should resign as president of the FIA," Mosley wrote. "In light of the attack on the mandate you have entrusted to me, I must now reflect on whether my original decision not to stand for re-election was indeed the right one."

Mosley told federation members in the letter that the FIA was preparing legal action against the F1 teams _ Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP _ that are planning to breakaway, if necessary. On Sunday, Mosley said FIA had halted legal proceedings to encourage reconciliation.

The problem stems from a proposed euro45 million ($60 million) budget cap for 2010 that Mosley repeated was "essential" if independent teams are to survive.

"Without the independent teams, the championship would depend entirely on the car manufacturers who, of course, have always come and gone as it suited them," Mosley wrote. "It is extraordinary that at a time when all five manufacturers involved are in great financial difficulty and relying on taxpayers money, their Formula One teams should threaten a breakaway series in order to avoid reducing their Formula One costs."

Mosley's letter to member federations also defended FIA's right to govern F1 after the European Car Manufacturers Association said that the current system could not continue.

The same 177 member federations preserved Mosley's position in a vote last June, which came after the 69-year-old Englishman was caught in a tabloid sting operation and pictured at an orgy involving five prostitutes.

Mosley has been the president of the FIA, the international automobile federation which governs Formula One racing, since 1993.