Return of traction control not a dead cert?

Last month's meeting of the Formula 1 Technical Working Group, made up of the F1 teams' technical bosses, voted unanimously to make traction control legal again on the grounds that it could not be effectively policed.

But before becoming F1 'law', the ruling has to be unanimously accepted by the F1 Commission - which includes representatives from all 11 teams - before being finally approved by the FIA World Council, the rule-making body of world motorsport.

However, sources at Jerez say that Ferrari and its two customer-engined teams, Sauber and Prost, may reject the proposal at tomorrow morning's (Thursday's) F1 Commission held prior to the afternoon's World Council meeting in Monaco. No specific reason was proffered as to why Ferrari would wish to vote out the proposal.

With the re-adoption of traction control still seemingly very much in the balance, many teams are hedging their bets.

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said: "There's obviously a lot of talk about it at the moment and stories of what will happen tomorrow, but I can't get drawn into making any prediction. As a team, we will just keep preparing for both possibilities."

Tomorrow's World Council will also determine whether Sauber's driver-in-waiting, the 21-year-old Finn Kimi Raikkonen, will be awarded the super licence necessary to race in F1 next year. Raikkonen, the British Formula Renault Champion, does not qualify based on results, but Sauber hopes his competitive showings in winter testing mean he will be rewarded a discretionary super licence.