Coulthard Unhappy with Mosley's Invitation

Mosley cancelled a meeting with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association scheduled for last Friday in Silverstone, after Coulthard openly criticised the engine and qualifying regulations at last weekend's French Grand Prix.

The FIA president wrote Coulthard, telling him he had turned a safety issue into a political matter and stating he would not attend the planned meeting.

Instead, Mosley today told Reuters he would meet the drivers on August 1st in Cannes - a day after the Hungarian Grand Prix and on the first day of the August break. Mosley resides in Monaco, a short drive away from Cannes, as do several of the drivers.

But Coulthard believes Mosley is being unfair in demanding the drivers to travel to Cannes, suggesting that the FIA president prefers to burden the drivers rather than himself. Nevertheless, the Scot said the drivers would try to be there.

"Clearly it's easier to get one man to a group than a group to one man," Coulthard said. "But that's what he's offered us and we will endeavour to make that meeting.

"We only wanted one FIA president to come to our meeting and that was difficult to achieve, so time will tell whether we can get half the super-licence holders there.

"Safety is an important issue for all of us and that has no bearing on whether someone happens to be available on the first of August or not," added the Scot.

"At this stage of the season our year is, I would suggest, infinitely busier than that of a lot of other people who perform duties around Formula One because we do the races, the tests and the promotions."

The aim of the meeting is the drivers' wish that the FIA ensures safety measures at private tests are on a par with those at Grands Prix.

The FIA said the agenda would focus on private testing, proposed technical and sporting regulations for 2008 and "any other business".