FIA warned over future rules move

In the wake of the FIA revealing plans for a more environmentally-friendly F1 from 2011, with discussions due to being in earnest at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, the sport's car makers are getting heavily involved in framing future regulations.

But McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, whose team are part-owned by Mercedes-Benz, fears that moves to appease the manufacturers runs the risk of driving independent teams out of the sport completely.

"There are two categories of Grand Prix organisations, those that have equity control from a manufacturer and those teams whose core business is F1," he said on Thursday in Monaco.

"I don't feel comfortable with regulations designed to favour manufacturers who at any time can stop because it is not their core business.

"History shows they do choose to stop at short notice for different reasons. So, to construct therefore F1 for the manufacturers is fundamentally wrong. I see the need for an F1 that embraces many of the things that are part of the paper.

"I am not opposed to it at all, I am supportive of it, but inevitably change is always considered a good solution to un-competitiveness, so cynically I look at a variety of teams saying 'great' because they are uncompetitive and cannot make competitive cars with the current regulations.

"I hope that the thing that has driven virtually every decision of value that is taken over the last five years, which is cost, is kept firmly at the top of the list because this is going to cost a fortune and there isn't anybody that can argue against that. This will cost a fortune.

"We need to be mindful of the fact that this could see the demise of several teams who will not be able to pursue development programmes or receive the support of a manufacturer.

"So going from one minute a situation where we are effectively going to have four cars of the same make, most of which will be produced by the core manufacturing companies, to a situation where the manufacturers are heavily favoured against those core manufacturers, I don't think that is correct. But that is an opinion."

Despite Dennis' fears about the future implications on F1, other team bosses have given a provisional thumbs-up for the proposals that have been put forwards.

Honda Racing team boss Nick Fry said that he believes moves to energy efficient rules are vital if the sport is to survive.

"In our view, it is completely mandatory... i.e. there is unlikely to be a Formula One in the future without steps in that direction," he said.

"I won't go into detail, but would say we would support 80 per cent of the detail of the proposal as well. What we are seeing here is some really game-changing leadership from the FIA and I think that is what is required and I think the whole thing is to be applauded."

Ferrari managing director Jean Todt added: "I think it is a good draft for discussion. Mainly it is addressing the power train situation, so the aerodynamic and the chassis are not well covered and we are now at the end of May 2007 and I hope things can move forward and we can write regulations that suit Formula One."