Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has warned that unease over the position of Max Mosley could lead to teams forming a breakaway championship.

Ecclestone had previously played down the threat after Mosley won a vote of confidence as president of governing body the FIA over a sex scandal.

But the 77-year-old told the Times: "The teams can do what they like.

"To keep sponsors happy, we are trying to say we can't break away. But it could well be that it will happen."

Ecclestone pointed out that the failure of F1's power-brokers to renew the Concorde Agreement - the document which governed the sport from 1981 to 2007 - means the teams are free agents.

"What the FIA doesn't have, which is the most important thing for them, is an agreement with the teams they would have with the Concorde Agreement," he added.

"There is no agreement between the teams and the FIA. There is a commercial agreement that has been signed by the teams and Formula One Management, so the teams can do what they like."

Ecclestone has been discussing a revised Concorde Agreement with the teams, but Mosley has, according to sources, made it clear he does not want to renew it.

That effectively means any checks on his power as FIA president, which were enshrined in the Concorde Agreement, no longer exist.

He has already disbanded the F1 Commission, the body which until last year agreed the F1 rules before they were rubber-stamped by the FIA World Council.

And teams are anxious about the fact that the current situation deprives them of power and influence.