Analysis: FIA Proposes F1 Revolution

Formula One's governing body has proposed the biggest shake-up in the sport's history to slash the cost of competing and put drivers back in the limelight.

The raft of ideas put forward by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) on Friday will, if approved, come into effect in 2008.

Engine capacity would be reduced to 2.4 litre V8s from three litre V10s, with each unit having to last two races, and teams would be allowed to buy, loan or sell their chassis and components between each other.

Fully manual gearboxes and clutches would return with power steering banned along with the use of spare cars, a move that should let driver talent shine above the technology and allow more overtaking.

Teams will not be allowed to do any substantial mechanical work on cars for the duration of an event while also included is the highly contentious proposal to end the sport's 'tyre war' by forcing out one of the two current suppliers.

"I think it is probably the biggest package of changes (Formula One has ever seen)," FIA president Max Mosley told Reuters. "And the reason for doing it now is that I think there is a really serious problem in Formula One with the amount of money that is being spent.

"Several of the major manufacturers are starting to look at what they are spending on engines and wondering whether they are getting value for money. Teams are finding it difficult to get enough sponsorship to meet their costs.

"There is a risk that we will start to see big problems if we don't do something."

Monaco Meeting

The FIA will meet the six team bosses who replied to an invitation to discuss the proposals in Monaco on May 4. McLaren's Ron Dennis and the bosses of Jaguar, Toyota and Minardi failed to reply to the invitation.

Mosley said the first objective was "to improve the racing spectacle without introducing artificial rules".

The others were the elimination of so-called electronic 'driver aids' such as traction control, and measures to reduce the costs of competing and bring in new teams to encourage a full grid of 24 cars.

"If people don't go and watch it (Formula One), it doesn't matter how cutting-edge it is. It will fail," Mosley said. "People are really interested in the human contest but obviously in very high performance machines.

"If you have too much technology and not enough driver, the public will start to lose interest."

The last new team to enter the sport was Japanese car giant Toyota in 2002, paying $50 million to secure their slot, but the smaller Prost and Arrows teams have folded in recent seasons.

Some of the teams, such as Ferrari and Toyota, have estimated annual budgets in excess of $300 million while the likes of Minardi are struggling to pay around $1 million a race for their engines.

"You would be looking at budgets more in the order of, and this is guesswork, $15 to 20 million, or perhaps even less," said Mosley. "Whereas the Minardi type operation is significantly more than double that."

The proposals also called for private testing to be slashed back, limited by mileage rather than the number of days and enforced by the use of an FIA control unit in cars.

Teams currently spend more time and money testing than racing, with most of that time devoted to tyre development. The FIA said final proposals would be submitted to its world motor sport council on June 30, 2004.

Under the confidential Concorde Agreement governing the sport, the FIA must announce the technical regulations for the 2008 season by December 31, 2005.