If the FIA’s plan for a standard engine in Formula 1 is just their way of pushing the teams to finalise cost cutting measures, then they’re doing a good job of making people take it seriously.

Yesterday the FIA reiterated its intention, and revealed that there are several interested parties. It is believed, however, that current Formula 1 teams - as members of FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) - have agreed not to apply. It’s obvious that they’re not keen, and it’s becoming more obvious.

Most obvious of all is Ferrari, issuing an official statement on Monday making plain their feelings: a standard engine would make the board of directors “re-evaluate” the team’s involvement.

Toyota also commented, but in a less official manner, coming from team president John Howett rather than the corporate entity. The sentiment - “we don’t want a standard engine” - was clear, but he added that the decision would ultimately be taken by the board in Japan.

So what happens now? We sit, wait, and hope for a full-on war of words. Because that’d be a lot of fun.

UPDATE

The FIA has responded to Ferrari’s statement:

“It seems the Ferrari Board were misinformed. The FIA has offered the teams three options, one of which is the so-called standard engine, and another that the manufacturers should jointly guarantee to supply power trains to the independent teams for less than €5m per season.”

Well, that makes the FIA’s motives very clear: the threat of a standard engine is the FIA’s way of forcing the manufacturers to supply independent teams with cheaper engines.

Now: fight!

I like Ross Brawn. He seems a reasonable chap, and apparently he’s quite good at all that strategy lark Formula 1 types enjoy so much. But oh dear. Talking about Honda’s testing plans, autosport.com quotes Brawn as saying:

“We have got a full test over the winter with a whole myriad of parts.”

No! You have “myriad parts”; “myriad of parts” is nonsense, sir. Nonsense!

Clearly the man’s an idiot.

There’s a lot of speculation at this time of year. You don’t need me to tell you that. But this week we’ve seen a good few confirmations.

I’m oddly preoccupied by British Superbikes at the moment. Next season is starting to take shape now, with HM Plant Honda announcing Australians Josh Brookes and Glen Richards as their riders. Brookes - who competed in World Supersport this year - was already strongly rumoured after a surprise appearance for the team at the final British Supersport round at Brands Hatch recently. Richards, meanwhile, took this year’s British Supersport championship on a Triumph.

There are still more question marks than confirmed riders in BSB for 2009 though, as neatly illustrated on the BSB website.

Elsewhere, Sete Gibernau’s return to MotoGP has been confirmed in Valencia, ahead of the final round of the year. Following successful tests for the factory squad, his return comes in the form of a single entry satellite Ducati team - Grupo Francisco Hernando ONDE 2000. A snappy team name, then. Spanish property developer Francisco Hernando is the cash money behind the team, which will be run by brothers Gelete and Pablo Nieto - a fine motorcycling family.

Valentino Rossi would be the best thing that ever happened to the World Rally Championship, if he made the switch - which he won’t. He has confirmed his third WRC outing though: throwing a Ford Focus WRC around Wales Rally GB. I desperately want him to beat Sebastien Loeb.

When Max Mosley mentioned the idea of a standard engine in Formula 1 last week, it was widely believed to be nothing more than a hot poker up the backside of the teams; a hurry up to finalise cost cutting measures. But today they’ve only gone and invited tenders to supply a standard engine for three years from 2010, then clarified it a bit.

The plan appears to be this: one supplier designs and builds an engine; teams can then either take that complete engine, or - the clarification - build their own engine from that exact design. Bernie Ecclestone said he can’t see why the car manufacturers would leave as a result, because they’d be saving money.

Let’s take Ecclestone’s point first. The idea of a standard engine is to eliminate performance advantages, which are exactly what manufacturers want to demonstrate. Quite apart from that: is, for example, Ferrari going be willing to race with a Renault engine? For reasons of branding, marketing and simple pride, it seems deeply unlikely. The option to assemble it themselves is an utter irrelevance, unless I’ve misunderstood.

Whether it matters is a quite different question. Without engine development, teams wouldn’t necessarily need the budgets of the manufacturer teams, so their dropping out could be a good thing.

But without the manufacturer teams, some of the gravitas might be be lost. Force India isn’t quite as recognisable or highly regarded a name as Ferrari; then again, maybe Red Bull is, and the likes of McLaren and Williams have serious racing pedigree.

The IndyCar Series has a standard engine and chassis, but still attracts top sponsors and teams, and it is they who provide the recognisable names, not the Honda engine or Dallara chassis. That said, IndyCar Series is trying to get more engine manufacturers involved from 2011.

So what would Formula 1 look like with a standard engine? The best case scenario would be a dozen non-manufacturer teams, with household names as title sponsors funding the more modest budgets. But for sponsors, part of the current appeal of Formula 1 is the association with a premium brand like Ferrari. It’s hard to say which sponsors would remain interested in Formula 1, but it’s safe to say that it wouldn’t be all of them.

If Formula 1 budgets dropped as a result, the glamour - and the appeal to some fans - would be wiped out. Without intense competition from car manufacturers, the appeal to another section of fans would be wiped out.

There’s also the risk that if car manufacturers lost interest in Formula 1, they would - as has been threatened repeatedly - form their own championship. As demonstrated by the split of open wheel racing in North America in the 1990s, and the eventual unification of Champ Car and IndyCar this year, it’s not likely that this would be a good thing for anyone.

So what’s the conclusion? A standard engine would be a huge risk, with a variety of possible outcomes, under which Formula 1 could flourish, or shrivel and die. But I don’t think the standard engine will become a reality, so it’s probably all rather academic.

The final round of the British Superbikes at Brands Hatch at the weekend was a fitting end to a very good season. Shane Byrne in particular has provided excellent value for spectators all year, and the final race, when he came through to take the lead from Leon Haslam on the final lap, was no different.

It was an unreasonably nice day for October - or any time of the year, to be fair - so I have only myself to blame for not getting any decent photos. Too bright? Too hazy? I don’t know, but the usually reliable Druids gave me nothing. At least I was luckier with being close to incidents - one thing Druids didn’t fail to provide.

Looking to next season, news has started to filter through since the weekend - and it’s looking more different than I’d imagined.

As had been rumoured at the weekend, Rizla is parting company with Crescent Suzuki - though the team is retaining the full support of Suzuki GB, so they should remain competitive.

There are even more changes at GSE Racing, the team that’s run as Airwaves Ducati for the past few years. They’re retaining Leon Camier, who will be joined by James Ellison, but they’ll be running the Yamaha YZF-R1, and sponsors have yet to be announced.

I’d not really considered sponsors, and it is they who have the greatest impact on what the grid looks like, in terms of livery. I for one will miss the bright blue of Rizla.

I’m not sure what British Superbikes is going to be like next year. This season has been very strong, but that’s reflected in three of the current top four riders going to the Superbike World Championship for 2009. And the other’s off to the Supersport World Championship.

They’re all British riders too, which is bloody encouraging. Shane Byrne is going to Sterilgada Ducati, Leon Haslam to Stiggy Honda, and Tom Sykes to Yamaha Motor Italia. Cal Crutchlow is heading for Yamaha Supersport.

But it’s two of last year’s British Superbike stars, currently in World Supersport, who will be the ones to watch in World Superbikes next season. Both are making the step up with their current teams - Jonathan Rea with Hannspree Ten Kate Honda, Tommy Hill with Hannspree Honda Althea.

Some of this space for new blood in World Superbikes comes from new manufacturers, in the form of BMW - with Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus - and Aprilia - with Max Biaggi. It’s going to be fascinating to see how they do.

Back to British Superbikes, who’s left? There’s no word yet on Leon Camier, currently fifth in the standings. My guess would be that he’ll be keen to stay in Britain, and take advantage of his experience against what could turn out to be a reasonably inexperienced field.

Then there’s Michael Rutter, who’s a bit older than most but, at sixth in the standings, has proven to be extremely capable of delivering results. Could he and other independents like him end up on tasty factory bikes? Most likely for the factory teams, I guess, is a mix of current independents, promotions from British Supersport, and a foreign import or two.

One face we will be seeing in British Superbikes is that of MotoGP rider Sylvain Guintoli, who impressed in 2007 on the Tech 3 Yamaha, and has had the odd moment on the Alice Ducati this season. He’ll be on the Rizla Suzuki, presumably alongside Atsushi Watanabe who, in his second season, will probably want to start doing something.

Although hardly on the same scale as the current international financial meltdown, the World Rally Championship is having a fairly uncertain time. But the FIA is probably dithering more than any government - even the Icelandic.

A global promoter for the WRC is key to the future involvement of both Citroen and Ford - with Citroen only committed to the end of 2009, and Ford without even that. But the FIA have delayed that announcement until next year, and pretty much everyone now wants clarity on that point.

It’s crazy. The WRC needs to attract more major car manufacturers, not risk losing the only two which are actually winning rallies. This year’s championship started vaguely interestingly, but I’ve all but lost interest now.

Admittedly, the TV coverage is much improved on last season. But with Sebastien Loeb truly competitive on all surfaces these days, and his closest challenger, Mikko Hirvonen, not up to speed on tarmac, there’s just nothing to keep me engaged.

The battle behind those two is full of inexperienced drivers, inferior cars and independents, which doesn’t exactly make for great viewing. We don’t even see much of excellent nutter Henning Solberg these days.

Having been away for a week, I missed Formula 1’s first night race in Singapore. Luckily the fall out is still being discussed, so I have an excuse to write about it.

Obviously the main event was Felipe Massa driving down the pitlane with his car’s fuelling umbilical cord flapping around. If I didn’t have money on him winning the championship, I would have laughed my teeth out. Ferrari’s electronic pit release system has proven to be just the most obvious of their blunders, in a pretty blunder-filled season for everyone.

Ferrari big face Luca di Montezemolo complained, saying that the lack of excitement apart from that generated by the safety car - and actually I thought it was quite a good race - was “humiliating for F1″. Presumably what he meant to say that his team being remarkably shit was humiliating for him.

Over the weekend, Bernie Ecclestone put the boot in good and proper, echoing pretty much everything I’ve just written - that di Montezemolo should have “kept his head down”, that the electronic pit release system is “over the top”, and that if Massa doesn’t win the championship then the team will be to blame.

Personally, I’m not so sure about that last point. The team have certainly made their share of mistakes, but so has Massa - most notably spinning repeatedly at Silverstone like a massive idiot.

Bernie Ecclestone really is a complete nut bar. Or if not, then he’s just an awkward little bugger. Thinking about it, that’s more likely.

He has an amazing way with unhelpful one-line answers, something beautifully demonstrated in the chat with journalists he had in Singapore, ahead of Formula 1’s first night race this weekend.

His manner with journalists is quite amusing, to a point. But it’s also infuriating, because it’s only through them that we get any information. So if he tells them nothing, we know nothing.

But to be fair, a lot of what he gets asked deserves the response it gets; when questions are carefully phrased, he can’t get out of providing a decent answer - see the variation in the length here. And that’s probably how it should be.

Williams ran a 2009-spec rear wing at the Formula 1 test at Jerez last week, and it looks a bit like a shopping trolley. Certainly it looks like there should be a little man at the back pushing the car from the rear wing.

I’m sure we’ll get used to it, and if it means the end of the horrendous shark fin, then I’m all for it. Sort of.