Exclusive: F1 Bosses Reject Radical Changes for Now

Formula One bosses tonight (Wednesday) rejected immediate radical changes to the sport but set up a revolutionary plan to reduce costs and increase excitement by the start of the 2005 season.

The sport has seen the demise of two teams in the last 12 months, but the new proposals, which will be presented to the sport's governing body, the FIA, on Thursday, could prevent more going out of business.

The 10 remaining team principals met at Heathrow's Radisson Hotel for a gruelling eight-hour meeting to thrash out plans to beat the grip of the deepening world recession.

And Paul Stoddart, the boss of the lightly-financed Minardi team, was delighted with the conclusion to months of hard-edged discussions which could save the teams millions of pounds next year.

"It was a very constructive meeting and everyone has pulled together to get these things into action," he said. "It was always going to be uphill to bring in changes for 2003 because everything is so far advanced.

"But it was great to see peoples' interest in the state of the sport as a whole take over from interest in the gain of individual teams. Today has been a genuine spirited cooperative experience."

The team principals, who met alongside the Technical Working Group but without Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Max Mosley, strayed away from radical change as rumoured plans to reintroduce slick tyres for 2003 were not even discussed.

Instead, they signed a unanimous agreement to six alterations that are mostly involved with changes to the format of race weekends for next year and put together draft proposals for 2004 and beyond.

Stoddart admitted that any major changes to the cars will not be made until 2005, but said the long-term plans for the sport are exciting and proclaimed: "Are we on the right track? Absolutely. Are we all pulling together to get there? Absolutely."

A source close to one of the teams said that getting rid of grooved tyres and traction control and reducing downforce are all on the list of proposals left open for discussion for the future, and added: "The whole idea is to have less emphasis on the technical side of things again and get the excitement back into the sport."

The 2003 regulation suggestions are now subject to the agreement of the sport's governing body, the FIA, but Stoddart said that the team bosses expect most of the ideas to be passed without question.

"I am totally confident," he said. "You cannot go too radical too soon and I believe we have all been totally responsible in the decisions we have made. We have a good measure of proposals for 2004 and we made a good step towards cost saving for then. And in 2005, we have plans to drive out cost and to improve the excitement of the sport."