Bernie started it. Okay, that's not quite true — the News of the World started it, but Bernie wasn't afraid to stick the knife in and twist it a couple of times.

After Max was caught with his pants down he unsurprisingly lost a lot of support from the F1 teams. It was only Ferrari who stoicly stood by him and it is no coincidence that Max runs Ferrari International Assistance. The German and Japanese manufacturers were the first to disown him — the French are used to these sort of shenanigans so Renault didn't really bat an eye at Max's antics.

Mosely was also ostracised by the motor racing community. Invitations to Bahrain, Spain and Monaco were all withdrawn as the outcry increased. Indeed at a team meeting in Spain Bernie tried to get support for a resolution asking for Max to step down. Three teams refused and the motion wasn't carried but the damage was done.

Max's strategy to stay in power was two pronged. First, he reminded the various associations about what he had done for them and motorsport over the last 15 years. Second he reminded the FIA he was in delicate negotiations over the future of the sport and that it would be catastrophic for the future of the FIA if he was cast aside.

The former carried more weight than the latter and it was little surprise to see Max secure his position at a specially convened meeting in early June.

The war has started

Since then the war has started. Last week the FIA met for their regular jamboree and the main agenda items seemed to be how to best wrestle F1 back from the clutch of Bernie.

There were two announcements of significance. First was the creation of an F2 series as a feeder in to the Formula 1. The significance of this was the proposed cost per car of €200,000! To put it into context that is about 15% of the cost per car for GP2, which is Bernie's F1 feeder series.

Second was the announcement of a review of how F1 is administered. Specifically Max is questioning the amount of money that the teams get from Bernie.

It is interesting that Max has focused aggressively on the cost angle. If F2 can be launched at the indicated the theory is that car manufacturers would embrace the formula with open arms and abandon the more expensive GP2. Also by telling the teams that Bernie should pay them more Max is trying to raise a rebellion against his old friend.

Will it work

Let's take each in turn. The F2 concept is a nice idea but is fraught with problems. To start with many believe it is completely unrealistic to run an advanced racing formula for so little money, especially if this is an F1 feeder. F2 cars will need to look and feel a lot like F1 cars so the jump up isn't great. If driving and F2 car is like driving a kart it won't make a particularly good feed as drivers won't be able to make the leap to F1 and they'll look to race elsewhere.

The other problem F2 faces is that GP2 has become successfully entrenched thanks partly to Lewis Hamilton's success in 2006 (i.e. demonstrating that it works as a feeder) and also because GP2 races are run concurrently with F1 races. Indeed in recent months we've started to see some TV coverage of GP2 events.

For F2 to succeed the constructors will need to abandon GP2 — and given the recent success of GP2 I don't think Bernie will lose too much sleep over it.

Max's other proposal is more intriguing. If he can drive a wedge between Bernie and the teams he might get somewhere — talking cash is probably not a bad strategy either.

However, Max faces one huge issue: credibility. Ferrari aside none of the teams like or trust him. Without a firm proposal and a successor on the table expect most teams to stick with the status quo.

And as for Bernie's attempt to break away from F1? That could still be on the cards and given the FIA's bungling of the sport over the last 10 years would be welcome by many.

The war has only just begun!