Aguri have to wait on third driver debate

Sources have told autosport.com that although Aguri's idea to sideline a regular driver in favour of a young tester was on the agenda of Friday's team principals' meeting in Monaco, the heated debate over customer cars went on so long that there was no time to talk about other items.

It means that discussions over the matter will now have to wait probably until the next team bosses' meeting, which is unlikely to take place before the New Year.

Super Aguri managing director Daniel Audetto had hoped to force teams to use a tester, so those teams who wanted to bring on a youngster were not at a disadvantage to those outfits only running their regular drivers.

"If you use a young test driver (on Friday), you will be less competitive for setting up the car and therefore the qualifying and the race," said Audetto.

"So either everybody uses a third driver on Friday and that must be compulsory - that one of the regular drivers must not drive at least for one session of 90 minutes - or I think very few teams will give a chance to a test driver on Friday."

Audetto's bid would need unanimous support to get voted into the regulations, something that would be unlikely with front-running teams like McLaren having made it clear that they believe the best way is to only run race drivers in Friday practice.