The Daily Telegraph has learnt that agents acting on behalf of key sponsors have approached the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management company to impress upon them the gravity of the situation if McLaren are suspended by the FIA’s world council at a hearing in Paris next Wednesday.McLaren have been summoned by the sport’s ruling body to answer five charges that they lied to race stewards in Australia and Malaysia – cheating Toyota out of third place – and procured world champion Lewis Hamilton into supporting that deception. The team have already been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix and stripped of the points they won in that race, while sporting director Dave Ryan, on whom all blame was apportioned, has been sacked.

Ron Dennis, the executive chairman of McLaren Automotive, has also withdrawn from the sport in a thinly-veiled attempt to placate the FIA, with whom he has had a difficult relationship. However, the FIA are continuing to investigate the chain of events that led to Hamilton issuing an emotional apology to the world in Sepang three weeks ago.

A source close to one of McLaren’s key sponsors said: “I can say that if a disproportionately large penalty were given to McLaren on April 29 then the sponsor that I am associated with might leave. But the punishment must fit the crime. If there is an irrefutable case of corporate deception then fair enough.

“I think we all know the subtext here; the FIA wanted to oust Ron Dennis. I believe the governing body have allowed this situation to escalate and it is doing no one any good – not McLaren, not the FIA and certainly not the sport. Apart from anything else, it is dissuading other potential sponsors from entering Formula One.”

A two-race suspension similar to the one handed to BAR in 2005 could mean McLaren being ruled out of the Barcelona and Monaco grands prix. Spain is a key market for Banco de Santander, one of McLaren-Mercedes’ major sponsors, while Monaco is the most important race of the season from a sponsor’s perspective. A four-race suspension would include the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on June 21.

If McLaren are found guilty under Article 151c, it would be the second time in three years that they have been found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute. The last time they were up before the world council, over the Ferrari-Spygate affair in 2007, they were handed a $100 million fine, the largest in sporting history.

If 151c was deemed to have been breached again, clauses in the contracts of the team’s major sponsors, such as Vodafone and Diageo, which owns the Johnnie Walker whisky label, would allow them to walk away from McLaren, leaving one of the sport’s largest teams without full financial backing during a worldwide recession.

It is understood that Vodafone’s 10-year deal with McLaren-Mercedes, signed in 2007 and with an opt-out clause after five years, is worth $800 million. Diageo’s deal is believed to be worth $45 million per year. Exxon Mobil and Banco de Santander are the team’s other major sponsors.

At jeopardy would be more than 1,000 jobs. McLaren Racing comprises roughly 600 employees, while many of the McLaren Group’s other departments, such as marketing and sponsorship acquisition, depend on the F1 operation to survive.

McLaren Automotive, which Dennis is to splinter off from the main McLaren Group, comprises another 500 employees and would also be placed in serious jeopardy if its major advertising platform was wound up.