Currently reading: Ferrari fails to stop F1 budget cap
French court rules that FIA's plans for a budget cap are legal

Ferrari has lost its legal bid to lodge an injunction against the FIA's plans for a voluntary budget cap in Formula 1.

The Maranello outfit was told by French legal authorities on Wednesday that it did not have a valid reason to block plans for a £40 million voluntary budget cap.

The move means that next week's entry deadline for the 2010 championship will go ahead, leaving current teams a few days to resolve their opposition to the regulations.

FIA president Max Mosley welcomed the ruling, saying: "No competitor should place their interests above those of the sport in which they compete. The FIA, the teams and our commercial partners will now continue to work to ensure the well-being of Formula One in 2010 and beyond."

Ferrari had gone to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris because it believed that the FIA's introduction of the regulations had been in breach of a technical veto that the team has over future technical rule changes.

The FIA argued, however, that the veto was no longer valid - and that Ferrari had also not used the available opportunities to impose its right.

Ferrari has indicated that it may appeal against the court's judgement if a satisfactory resolution to the problem is not found out of court.

So far Ferrari, Toyota, Renault and the Red Bull teams have said they will not lodge an entry to the 2010 world championship unless changes are made to the voluntary budget cap rules.

However, new teams including engineering firms Prodrive and Lola, start-up racing team US F1, sportscar team Epsilon Euskadi, leading race car engineering company Ray Mallock Limited and GP2 outfit Campos Racing have indicated they would like to race under the budget cap.

Ferrari responded to the names of the new teams by releasing a statement. It said: "Can a world championship with teams like them - with due respect - have the same value as today's Formula 1, where Ferrari, the big car manufacturers and teams, who created the history of this sport, compete? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it Formula GP3?"

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