With Formula One on a knife edge between a breakaway series or a decision by Max Mosley to stand aside as president of the FIA, there were indications last night that Mosley is considering such a move.

The Times understands that Mosley is prepared to countenance not standing for re-election as president this October but only if what is seen by him as the attack on the FIA's authority by the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) comes to an end.

The impression gained from authoritative sources is that Mosley is expecting Luca Di Montezemolo, the president of Fota, to set out his case over the crisis in the sport at a hearing of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Paris tomorrow.

The way this is handled could be critical to Mosley's future. If he feels that Di Montezemolo is making a personal attack and an attack on the FIA as whole, Mosley will consider that he has no choice but to stand again.

The development came after Flavio Briatore, the team principal of Renault, made clear that the time for talking with the FIA was over and claimed that the breakaway is going ahead. Briatore also responded to Mosley's dismissal of him and other team principals as “loonies”.

“I don't want to personally describe what Max is because, in his private life, we have already had a demonstration of what he was in the News of the World,” Briatore said, referring to revelations about Mosley last year.

Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's commercial rights-holder, offered only conditional support to Mosley last night. “I think possibly, possibly, long term he's right; short term he's wrong,” Ecclestone said. “Because if the lunatics [Fota] go and try to do a series on their own, it's going to screw up the FIA/Formula One and what they are trying to do as well.”