Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen on Friday blamed the dramatic schism and fallout in Formula One on warring egos.

The 29-year-old Finn, who won the world title in 2007, said that he believed that the Formula One Teams Organisation (FOTA) and the ruling body the International Motoring Federation (FIA) had lost sight of the real issues.

Ferrari ace Raikkonen said: "This is nothing to do with sport anymore, it's more politics and more about egos fighting against each other.

"It's not really about Formula One anymore. It's about who is going to win and who is going to lose. It's sad, but that's how it is, and we'll just see what happens."

Without mentioning names, Raikkonen appeared to support the belief that the split in the sport boiled down to a direct power struggle between FIA president Max Mosley and several individual teams and team chiefs.

In essence, it came down to a simple question: who owns and runs this sport?

Mosley, once a team owner himself with March, has worked for decades in tandem with another former team owner Bernie Ecclestone, once of Brabham, to exercise total control over Formula One?s rules, structure, commercial activity and calendar.

Now that many of the teams are owned by major automotive manufacturers such as Mercedes, BMW, Toyota and Renault, the once-acceptable dictatorial style of management offered by the FIA has been rejected.

The teams want to have rights of their own and run their own sports-business, in much the same way as several other major sports have seen the creation of elite competitions for the elite competitors.

Raikkonen added: "Of course it's sad to see. I don't know what will happen or where we are going to race, but let's finish this year then we will know more about next year."

The Finn confirmed that he, like Fernando Alonso of Renault, and most other top drivers, would follow his team out of Formula One in order to continue racing at the top level against the best teams and drivers.

"For sure we want to have the best drivers and the best teams in the same championship. That's really what Formula One is all about. For sure, next year we are going to race somewhere, but I don't know where."

via AFP