Ferrari has sought to clarify Mattia Binotto's latest comments, the Italian team denying that he actually said the team was threatening to quit F1.

"The $145m level is already a new and demanding request compared to what was set out last June," he told the Guardian in reaction to proposals to cut the planned budget cap limit even lower than the planned $150m. "It cannot be attained without further significant sacrifices, especially in terms of our human resources.

"If it was to get even lower," he continued, "we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA."

Though Ferrari has a history of threatening to quit the sport, to the extent of helping set up a breakaway championship only to be enticed back on board by Bernie Ecclestone, the Italian team denies that Binotto's suggestion of looking "at further options for deploying out racing DNA" was a threat to leave F1.

"We would like to clarify what Mattia said in his interview with published yesterday night," said the Maranello-based outfit in a brief statement this morning.

"He never mentioned about Scuderia Ferrari quitting F1," it continued, "on the contrary, he said that we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at further options, besides continuing racing in F1, for deploying our racing DNA, in case the budget cap would be even more drastically reduced, putting at risk hundreds of workplaces.

"The misunderstanding was raised by the misleading headline of the article which was published at first and was immediately corrected."

The Guardian's "misleading headline" aside, Ferrari has a long, long history of such threats.