Engine Changes for 2005 Costly, Say Theissen

BMW motorsports boss Mario Theissen believes that the proposed rules changes for next season could be costly for the engine manufacturers.

FIA's president Max Mosley is determined to push through technical changes to reduce speeds and make racing safer, cheaper and more entertaining as soon as next year. The changes include making engines last for two races each, rather than one at present, and forcing drivers to qualify and race with the same tyres.

But Theissen believes it is too late in the season to impose changes, which would mean the manufacturers would have to scrap all their plans and start from scratch once again.

"The FIA proposals for 2005 would require every manufacturer to abandon work which has already been done, because almost all of next year's engines are on the dyno; at least every engine has been through the design phase," said Theissen.

"So if you change something significantly now, it would require a change which would increase costs instead of decrease it."

Theissen also said that the proposed changes would not mean a significant reduction of the cars' speed.

"It will not be a big change in terms of engine power for next season, it would not have a big impact [on speed] either," he added. "Max Mosley, in his press conference two weeks ago, stated that a reasonable notice for an engine design change would be 18 months and I fully support that."

The teams, however, have until September 6 to present their own proposals to the FIA, and Theissen was confident an agreement would be reached in time.

"I think if we do achieve a proposal that is supported by every engine manufacturer, this would show that we are prepared to move towards the FIA's aims, and I hope this will give us support from the FIA," he said.

"It will be a package of 2005 and 2006 together, and the big issues we would like to see introduced in 2006 instead of 2005. But we will propose something for next year - I don't want to say what it is now because it's in the process of being agreed between the manufacturers.

"It shouldn't take long, but I cannot say it's agreed now, it's not the engine manufacturers' proposal right now. What I can say is that we're questioning the change to a two-race engine format for next year, because that would require a design change and would mean you have to drop some of the work already done.

"If we went to a two-race engine format now, everybody will have to rush to get something done for next year - you couldn't do a reasonable job - so I would expect more engine blow ups."