BAR, Williams Back Effort for Arrest Warrant Immunity

Formula One's top bosses on Tuesday backed efforts by the sport's governing body, the FIA, to force European governments into granting a reprieve from new arrest warrant laws that could affect the sport.

The teams have threatened to boycott races because of fears that engineers could face charges if a driver is killed in a crash, but the FIA have sent a letter to the affected races asking them to demand immunity.

BAR-Honda team principal David Richards, whose driver Jenson Button was hospitalised in a crash at Monaco last year, said: "We are fully supportive of the stance of the FIA and its president Max Mosley in this regard."

The last time a driver was killed in Formula One was during the horrific San Marino Grand Prix weekend in 1994 when Austrian Roland Ratzenberger and triple World Champion Brazilian Ayrton Senna were killed on consecutive days.

Senna's death left his Williams team's technical director Patrick Head and their then chief designer Adrian Newey faced with manslaughter charges. They were dropped in 1997 and, after an appeal, in 1999, but now face yet another appeal.

Italian races have long been the only ones to have a law for accidents but new rulings introduced in Belgium, Britain and Spain at the start of this year mean a similar situation could now happen in other races.

Additional warrants in Germany, France and Italy mean all races in the EU face a boycott and team principal Sir Frank Williams said: "Williams supports the FIA in its energies to represent Formula One's interests in this matter. I share significant concerns with the wider Formula One community that the best intentions of the EAW presents a potential risk for teams contesting Grands Prix in EU signatory states."