Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Ferrari SpA said Toyota Motor Corp.’s decision to follow Honda Motor Co. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG out of Formula One in the past year was the fault of the sport’s ruling body rather than economic circumstances.

Toyota yesterday quit the sport with immediate effect to cut costs estimated at more than $500 million a year amid record losses. Its withdrawal came two days after Bridgestone Corp. said it will leave as Formula One’s tire supplier after 2010.

“The reality is that this gradual defection from the F-1 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,” Ferrari, the sport’s oldest team, said in a statement on its Web site.

Toyota’s pull out leaves Ferrari, Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz and Renault SA as carmakers who will continue in next year’s championship. Renault held an emergency board meeting in Paris yesterday to discuss its future, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, without saying where it got the information.

Comparing the loss of some of the sport’s “major players” to the plot of “Ten Little Indians,” the 1930s crime novel by British writer Agatha Christie, Ferrari said that Formula One’s reality was more serious.

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

‘Of Concern’

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, F-1’s ruling body, said yesterday that Toyota’s withdrawal was “of concern,” coming “just weeks” after the world’s largest carmaker signed up to the series through 2012.

“The FIA will now work to ensure that Toyota’s departure is managed in the best interests of the championship,” the Paris-based FIA said in a statement.

Proton Holdings Bhd.’s Lotus Cars Ltd. will return in 2010 after a 15-year absence as one of at least four new smaller racing squads. A new U.S. team, Spain’s Campos Grand Prix and the U.K.’s Manor Grand Prix are also scheduled to race next season, which starts in March.

“Can we claim that it’s a case of like for like, just because the numbers sitting around the table are the same? Hardly,” Ferrari said. “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.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney at dbaynes@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 21:12 EST