FIA Confident in Government Action to Avoid Boycott

The FIA said on Wednesday that Formula One teams did not consider themselves above the law and expressed confidence that individual governments would back them in a row over European arrest warrants.

Formula One teams said this week that they would not compete in Europe unless given a legally-binding guarantee that the warrants, introduced at the start of the year, would not be used against them in the event of a fatality on the track.

The stance drew a stern response from Pietro Petrucci, spokesman for European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, who said the governing FIA was far too late in responding to a measure adopted a year and a half ago.

"The FIA has woken up too late," he said. "The search and arrest warrant was adopted in the middle of 2002. They have come to the European Commission after the final whistle. You cannot get into the game when the debate has already ended."

"We can't see why we should make an exception for Formula One," added the spokesman.

"There are many risky professions, such as commercial airline pilots responsible for the lives of hundreds of people or captains of oil tankers liable for environmental damage. Nobody is above the law. You have to trust the judicial system."

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley rejected the accusation and said one government had already moved to defuse the row.

Defuse Row

"Mr Vitorino is clearly unaware that one EU government has already confirmed that the relevant provisions of the European Arrest Warrant do not apply to sport," he said. "We anticipate that other EU governments will agree."

The FIA declined to name the government.

"No F1 team considers itself above the law but they will not race where they do not feel safe," added Mosley. "Mr Vitorino may not understand this but those who apply EU laws do."

The warrants have been implemented by eight countries so far, including race hosts Belgium, Britain and Spain.

The other seven - including Germany, France and Italy - have pledged to implement the legislation by March, before the first race of the year in Europe. Formula One's last race fatality was Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna, who died at the San Marino Grand Prix in Italy in 1994.

Williams' technical director Patrick Head and team designer Adrian Newey, now with McLaren, were told last year that they must face a new appeal court hearing into the accident. Both men were acquitted of manslaughter after a trial in Bologna in 1997. The verdict was upheld in 1999.

Team bosses have warned repeatedly that they might not race in Italy, which hosts two races, if they risk conviction under Italian law for race accidents.

Mosley, who has clashed with the Commission before on measures to ban the tobacco advertising that funds half the Formula One teams, told BBC radio earlier that there remained a serious risk of a boycott and said team owners were not refusing to accept responsibility.

"The difficulty for them is they don't want to be arrested as soon as they are prosecuted and carted off to jail in the relevant country to wait trial," he said.