F1 shake-up: Traction control banned

Traction control returned to Formula 1 during 2001, but Mosley is adamant that a ban can be adequately policed in future.

"It was alleged that we could not police things like traction control," said Mosley. "We never believed that and we think that events afterwards demonstrated that we could, because when the systems became legal they didn't work which indicated they weren't there when they were illegal.

"The teams proposed a new regulation for 2003 in the technical regulations, which was accepted, which was that they have to be able to show by physical inspection only that the car complies [with a ban]. So if you then say that there is no traction control, and that you have got to demonstrate that physically, it must follow that you have to have something like a standard ECU because how otherwise can you see by physical inspection if a car is legal?"

Mosley says he will take a "zero tolerance" approach to enforcing a ban, but could be persuaded to delay this if teams say it will cost money to remove traction control from their cars for this season.

He added: "We have decided to impose these things to the letter. But we must give a derogation on this. You can't spring things on people they can't switch off all the systems between now and Melbourne without spending more money.

"What we have said is that anywhere where they can demonstrate that doing it instantly is going to cost more than it saves we will give a derogation. But they have got to demonstrate that it will cost more to switch it off than for them not to."