Ferrari believes the recent departures of high-profile car manufacturers from F1 is as a result of the management of the sport, and not the global economic downturn being cited by the departees. Likening the sport's situation to Agatha Christie's detective novel "Ten Little Indians", Ferrari also hit out at the calibre of new teams joining the sport next season.

In just 11 months, Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and Toyota have all announced their departures from Formula One, with Bridgestone due to leave after next season. Ferrari says 'the reality' of their departures is a result of the stance taken by the sport's rulers against the car manufacturers.

Relations between the sport's rulers and the car manufacturers reached an all-time low after a summer of disagreement over cost-cutting, distribution of the sport's earnings and the future direction of the sport, all of which culminated in a threatened breakaway series by the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) which was mooted mid-summer.

“It could be seen as a parody of "Ten Little Indians," the detective novel by Agatha Christie, first published in England back in 1939, but the reality is much more serious,” read a press statement from Ferrari.

“Formula 1 continues to lose major players: in the past twelve months, Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and, only this [week], Toyota, have announced they are leaving the sport.

“ In exchange, so to speak, we will now have, Manor, Lotus, USF1 and Campos Meta. Can we claim that it's a case of like for like, just because the numbers sitting around the table are the same? Hardly and we must also wait and see just how many of them will really be there on the grid for the first race of next season in Bahrain and how many will still be there at the end of 2010.”

“The reality is that this gradual defection from the F1 fold has more to do with a war waged against the major car manufacturers by those who managed Formula 1 over the past few years, than the result of any economic crisis,” continued the statement.

With just two car manufacturers left with teams in the sport, Ferrari and Renault, the Scuderia is hoping the situation can be reversed in the near future to help the sport survive.

“In Christie's work of fiction, the guilty party was only uncovered when all the other characters died, one after the other. Do we want to wait for this to happen or do we want to pen a different ending to the book on Formula 1?”