Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has defended his latest money-saving plan but claims the big teams see it as “downgrading”.

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The distribution of wealth in F1 has come under intense scrutiny of late with many of the smaller teams struggling to make ends meet and Caterham and Marussia being forced into administration.

Marussia will race again next year under the Manor Marussia banner after being taken over by Northern Irish businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick but the same financial pitfalls still remain for the smaller marques.

One plan Ecclestone has put forward is to provide the lesser lights with two chassis for a cost of £15million while those at the front of the grid continue to develop their own, but the 84-year-old has revealed he has come up against strong opposition from the leading teams.

“Some of the other teams are saying, ‘well, this isn’t Formula One, this would be downgrading Formula One ‘,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

“I can’t see that. I’d call these four or five teams that we supplied chassis to the “Team Championship”. They would all be in the Team Championship but they wouldn’t be able to win the Constructors’ Championship.

“But to all intents and purposes, nobody would ever know. The public would never know. It would not alter the way they see the races. It wouldn’t change the spectacle.

“It would just mean that instead of incurring big losses, these teams would be able to make a profit. I have come up with something that could make a difference between the people that don’t have to worry about spending and those that do.

“But the bigger teams say it’s downgrading. They have been living in a very rich area and they think this would be like living in a poorer neighbourhood. So they don’t want to be associated with it.”