The man at the centre of Formula One's storm took shelter on the opening day of the British Grand Prix away from the welter of cameras trying to track his every step. Max Mosley, the controversial president of the FIA, is never usually short of something to say but he was staying out of the way as Formula One absorbed the announcement that eight teams were to walk out of the sport.

The official reason is the failure to agree a deal with Mosley on his demand for budget caps of £40 million for each team. The real reason is that the teams - Brawn GP, Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Toyota, BMW and McLaren Mercedes - have finally reached the end of their tether with a man they see as dictatorial and unreasonable.

Although the teams refuse to say it, behind the closed doors of their glistening steel and glass motorhomes they all admit that they can no longer work with the FIA president. If they were willing to overlook the sex and Nazi headlines of last year, the sudden introduction of new, expensive and, they say, unnecessary regulations has become too much to take. The drip, drip of tension has turned into a flood and Mosley can no longer put his finger into the Formula One dam.

There was probably no greater signal of what was to come than last Sunday wh en Luca di Montezemolo, the suave president of Ferrari, climbed up into the starter's box at Le Mans to wave the flag to start the famous 24-hour endurance race. Within minutes, he was telling reporters that Ferrari might one day return as a fully-fledged manufacturer to the great, old race if it left Formula One.

That was because he was finding it difficult to win a compromise with the FIA. He meant a compromise with Mosley, who has become Montezemolo's foe. Just as the FIA's punishment of McLaren Mercedes over the past two years was seen by the outside world as a Mosley vendetta against Ron Dennis, the team's principal, this row appears to be getting personal.

The problem for the teams is that although they want to see the back of Mosley, there is no mechanism for them to get him out. Mosley's constituency is the dozens of motoring clubs around the world that comprise the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, and Formula One, although highly lucrative, is only a fraction of the membership. The teams did not vote him in and they cannot vote him out.

The FIA's World Motorsport Council meets next week when Mosley could announce that he intends to stand for a new term of office later this year, but Sir Jackie Stewart, the three times F1 world champion, is no doubt it is time for Mosley to go.

"I think the teams do want Max to go because I think frankly some of the decisions made over the year have been very questionable,"

Stewart, who has been on the end of Mosley's lacerating tongue, told Autosport magazine. "I think a lot of people are kind of fed up with the dictatorial attitude.

"It's been coming for some time. I think the teams feel that they have been bullied in some way for quite a long time, trying to force things through. I have said for a long time that the FIA needs to be restructured and there needs to be more corporate governance. If that had taken place we would not be in the position we're in at the present time."

Appeals to Bernie Ecclestone, who represents the commercial rights holders, CVC Capital Partners, to sort out the dispute have so far not produced any results, although he and CVC are the biggest potential losers if a breakaway series goes ahead. Ecclestone protested he knew nothing as he walked into Silverstone before the Friday morning practice session for a British Grand Prix that seems largely overshadowed by the events off the track.

He has been through this before, though, and dragged Formula One back from the brink four years ago as the teams threatened to walk away then. This time the threat is more serious and there seems no way back, while Ecclestone seems powerless to broker a peace in the war between Montezemolo and Mosley. It seems that something will have to give - and the teams want that something to be Mosley.