Renault echo Ferrari's pullout threat

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Former champions Renault followed Ferrari's lead on Wednesday and threatened to quit Formula One at the end of the season unless the governing body rewrites the 2010 rules.

"If the decisions announced by the (FIA) World Council on the 29th of April 2009 are not revised, we have no choice but to withdraw from the FIA Formula One world championship at the end of 2009," team boss Flavio Briatore said in a statement.

Champions Ferrari, Formula One's glamour team who have competed in every championship since 1950, issued a similar threat on Tuesday in response to the introduction of an optional 40 million pounds budget cap.

Toyota and the two Red Bull-owned teams have also said they cannot enter what would amount to a two-tier championship, meaning half of the sport's 10 existing teams have now threatened to leave.

The stance of the teams has raised the stakes considerably in a war of words with the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), led by Max Mosley.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and the teams are scheduled to meet the Briton and Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone at a hotel near London's Heathrow airport on Friday.

COMMON SENSE

"I hope common sense will prevail because the last thing we want to do is lose any of the manufacturers or teams currently in Formula One," Ecclestone told the Times newspaper.