As the majority of manufacturers make clear their anxiety over the FIA's plans to enforce its plans for a budget cap and thereby create a two-tier formula, there has been a deafening silence from Mercedes, until now.

Mercedes Motorsport team boss Norbert Haug has said that while his company, which owns a 40 percent stake in McLaren, in addition to supplying engines to Force India and championship leaders Brawn GP, does not want to see a two-tier series, it prefers not to rock the boat at this time.

"I know that, from conversation with Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali that Ferrari has thought about this threat very well," said Haug, according to the Press Association. "After 60 years in Formula One, they would not do so without some serious thinking.

"We will try to help to find a solution," he added, "All the teams are agreed that there cannot be two regulations in one series."

Despite Haug's diplomacy, there are some who believe that Mercedes (and McLaren's) continued silence on the matter has more to do with keeping the FIA happy whilst still on probation for lie-gate rather than an overwhelming desire to hold the sport together, while others insist the German car giant is tired of the seemingly never ending bad publicity.