The cold war between Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley over the future of Formula One took a new turn yesterday with a letter from Ecclestone to the FIA clubs in which the commercial rights holder apparently draws back from any attempt to set up a breakaway championship.

In the missive seen by The Times, Ecclestone also appears to offer something of an olive branch to the embattled FIA president after weeks of tension in the wake of revelations about Mosley's private life and pressure on him from within the sport to resign.

Ecclestone makes clear that he and the Formula One teams want only what he calls “the same format” to govern the running of the sport as has been in place over the past 25 years, an arrangement controlled by a so-called “Concorde Agreement” between the teams and the FIA.

“The position of Formula One Management [FOM, Ecclestone's company] and the teams and the Formula One promoters is very simple,” Ecclestone writes. “They would like a Concorde Agreement signed in basically the same format as in the past agreements [under] which Formula One has been governed successfully ... for over 25 years. It follows the agreement reached with the European Commission where the FIA are the regulators of the sport and FOM are the commercial side of Formula One. We would hope that this can continue.”

Ecclestone goes on apparently to acknowledge that, despite the pressure on the FIA president to step down, from, among others, Ecclestone himself, Mosley is here to stay. “As far as the FIA president is concerned, this has now been made clear and there is not a change in the position at this time,” Ecclestone writes in a reference to this month's vote of confidence in Mosley by the FIA clubs at the governing body's headquarters in Paris.

“A number of the manufacturers and the teams, along with their sponsors, have stated that they thought the president should stand down because of matters in his private life,” the letter says. “This is their and only their opinion as they are not part of the FIA and therefore do not have votes. Personally Max has been a friend for 40 years and I hope he still is. He has, in his way, carried out many matters which have been beneficial to the FIA and should be appreciated for this.”

The letter comes in the wake of a decision by Mosley to cancel an important meeting with Ecclestone in London this week. Sources at the FIA indicate that there is considerable tension between the men and that there is likely to be a disagreement on a new Concorde deal centring on the FIA's plan to reduce the amount of money earned by Ecclestone and to redistribute the balance among the Formula One teams.