The Formula One Teams' Association will not be scared of running a breakaway series should a split from F1 ultimately unfold.

That was the view of Renault's executive director of engineering Pat Symonds as the FIA-FOTA feud continues to hang over the sport.

Toyota Motorsport president John Howett confirmed on Thursday a rival championship was currently "on the backburner" in the wake of the latest fallout between the two organisations.

It is appreciably more likely a resolution will be found and the eight teams comprising FOTA - Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Renault, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP - will be racing in F1 next year.

But as BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen confirmed "all options are open," and if the last resort of a rival series does occur, it will be embraced and not feared.

"To say it's on the backburner doesn't mean it's not still cooking, that it's dead. It means work is still going on," said Symonds.

"There's been a lot of talk about what happened in America, and when CART and IRL separated it wasn't good for the sport.

"But if you go back to the late '70s which is when CART split from USAC, who ran the ChampCars in those days, there are a lot more parallels to what happened then to the current situation.

"The CART/IRL split had a lot to do with personalities, egos etc, yet the formation of CART out of USAC was more to do with issues of governance and finance.

"The breakaway series was CART, which was extremely successful for many, many years.

"Personally, I have no worries about a breakaway series, it can be done, and if the necessity is there then I don't think anyone in FOTA is scared of the prospect."

Red Bull Racing's chief technical officer Adrian Newey concedes no team ideally wants to split as there are serious implications to consider.

"Everybody is conscious of the fact if you have two rival series they will split viewership, and the whole show is weakened as a result of that," assessed Newey.

"That is certainly what happened in the States, and that is why FOTA is working so hard as an organisation to come to an agreement.

"If that agreement can't be reached then the breakaway series has to be the alternative."

Offering McLaren's perspective on the matter, engineering director Paddy Lowe remarked: "It is a real option still being looked at.

"If that's how it has to be then we will get on and do it. But we obviously hope the right agreements can be reached."

Offering a non-FOTA perspective, Williams technical director Sam Michael said: "We've made our position pretty clear.

"We hope a resolution will be achieved, and hopefully shortly, so there is only one series."