FIA Delay Driver Aids Ban Due to Arbitration

Formula One's ruling body, the FIA, have announced they have decided to delay the introduction of a ban of the so-called driving aids until the start of the 2004 season.

The FIA had planned to ban the use of traction control and fully automatic gearboxes starting at this year's British Grand Prix in July. However, the ruling body have decided to postpone the introduction of the changes until an arbitration proceeding involving the McLaren and Williams teams is completed.

Williams and McLaren begun the process of arbitration to contest the FIA's "dictatorial" approach to the rule changes introduced this year, which they believe were not strictly legal to be imposed under the current Concorde Agreement.

"The technical devices which will ensure the absence of driver aids (in particular launch control, traction control and fully-automatic gearboxes) require substantial investment," said the FIA statement. "The FIA is reluctant to commit the necessary resources until actual or threatened arbitration proceedings have been resolved.

"Accordingly, the full enforcement of the long-established ban on in-car driver aids will be delayed until the first race of the 2004 season. If current uncertainties have not been resolved before the deadline for ordering the technical devices for 2004, competing teams will be required to demonstrate the absence of driver aids to the satisfaction of the stewards at each event of the 2004 and subsequent Championships."

The FIA had originally wanted to ban traction control from the start of the current season while some teams, who have invested heavily in the systems, wanted no change until 2004 at the earliest.

Traction control, which reduces wheelspin and makes cars easier to drive in the wet, was banned from the end of 1993 to 2001 when it was reinstated after the FIA recognised difficulties in policing the systems.