It is understood that the FOTA teams have agreed to scrap the controversial KERS system, one of the cornerstones of Max Mosley's 'green initiative' for F1.

In the last two races only McLaren and Ferrari have used KERS, with Renault and BMW being the only other teams to run the device during the course of the season thus far.

With the remainder of the teams showing no sign of using the device, which has been developed at great cost, and was scheduled to be made mandatory in 2010, this makes a total mockery of Mosley's drive to cut costs.

Asked by the BBC if the FOTA teams had agreed to abandon KERS from next season, as part of their cost-cutting drive, Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali said: "That is our position jointly.

"Of course, we are the ones that are using it now with McLaren," he continued. "We have invested a lot of money in it and it's difficult for the public to understand how there are cars with KERS and cars with no KERS. I think in the view of helping new teams to get into F1, and in order to save money, that is a logical decision, even if we have invested a lot of money in the project."

Ironically, when most of the teams were admitting their doubts about KERS last year, it was BMW that championed the system. However, having encountered numerous problems with the system, which particularly handicaps 'bigger' drivers, the German outfit stopped using it several races ago.