Max Mosley predicted this is what would happen to F1

Max Mosley predicted the manufacturers would drive F1 costs so high the sport would collapse. The new 'green' power units are so expensive and so unnecessary

Formula One's authorities are coming under fierce attack for failing to curtail spiraling costs amid a financial crisis in the sport which has left two teams on the brink of collapse.

The FIA, motorsport's governing body, had pledged to introduce a cost cap and has angered the sport's smallest outfits with its failure to push it through. It faced opposition from Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's supremo, as well as the biggest teams, including Red Bull and Ferrari, who spend around �140?million a year.

Jean Todt, the FIA president, told the Telegraph before this season began that "a lot of teams will die" if nothing meaningful is done to curb F1's massive budgets.

The Frenchman's prediction, also made by several of the smaller squads who operate on a shoestring budget, appears to be coming true with the demise of Caterham and Marussia.

Both will miss the next two races in Austin and Sao Paulo with their future beyond that bleak.

Caterham are in administration and there are rumors Marussia are on the cusp of following their competitors. For the third day in succession, the Banbury-based marque maintained their silence and did not respond to requests for comment from the Telegraph.

Todt's cost cap proposal came unstuck earlier this season as the FIA attempted to pass it through F1's Strategy Group, a committee of Ecclestone's Formula One Management, the FIA and the biggest teams. The sport's governing body will attempt to bring cost control back on the agenda at the next meeting of the all-powerful Strategy Group.

While F1's four smallest independent teams � Caterham, Force India, Marussia and Sauber � were frustrated with the big spenders' opposition to a cost cap, it has been the FIA which has come in for the severest criticism.

Jean Todt

"The FIA and Jean Todt have sold themselves to Bernie Ecclestone and have given up running Formula One," an insider said on Sunday night.

There is also a feeling that Todt, unlike his predecessor, Max Mosley, has been impotent to overcome serious opposition. But the FIA argues that it was up against insurmountable barriers.

A source said: "It's food for thought when something you have been warning about comes to pass. Sometimes only an emergency makes people realize how big the danger is."

Attention will now turn to Sauber, Force India and possibly Lotus as the next teams under threat. Bob Fearnley, Force India's deputy team principal, said that he was "saddened" to lose two teams and that more could follow.

"We've had three new teams since 2010, and all three have collapsed," Fearnley said. "The writing was on the wall from the beginning. Only five teams have a say in the running of Formula One � we'll lose more teams if we carry on like this. If there had been cost control and more equitable distribution of the prize money maybe Caterham and Marussia wouldn't have failed."

Marussia will be desperate to cling on until the start of the next season, with a huge windfall possible. At present, they receive just �6?million a year in appearance fees but finishing ninth in the constructors' championship will bring a �40?million bonus.

But with their billionaire owner � the Russian Andrey Cheglakov � losing interest, even then the team would face a difficult future. The team are still reeling from Jules Bianchi's life-threatening accident at the Japanese Grand Prix earlier this month.

Squabbling aside, it leaves F1 with an 18-car grid for the first time in nearly a decade. At the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, BAR did not race due to a technical infringement. To find the last time nine teams were able to enter, you have to go back to the 1970s.

The FIA could even have to change the qualifying format for the US Grand Prix, and longer term the biggest teams may be required to enter three cars. It is thought that if the grid falls below 16 cars, a series of commercial contracts between F1 and race promoters will be breached. The Independent