Mosley Dismisses Cost Rise Fears

Max Mosley, head of Formula One's governing body, has dismissed a suggestion that next year's rule changes for qualifying could send costs soaring for teams.

"The claim that teams will build special qualifying cars which will drive up costs by millions is nonsense," the International Automobile Federation (FIA) president said today.

"In any event, teams have to race the car that was scrutineered," he added. "If there were substantial differences between the car used for qualifying and the car used for the race, the team would have problems with the scrutineers."

Mosley was responding to comments made by McLaren's influential designer Adrian Newey, who said earlier today that the rule changes announced on October 28th were "not thought through" and were likely to see the teams fielding a one-lap car.

Mosley disputed that there would be much to change.

"Teams already change a number of elements on the car for qualifying, hence the difference in lap times between qualifying and the race," he said. "The best advice is that anything that could be done for a single lap during the course of one hour could be done for two, three or even four single laps - i.e. for the previous system."

Team principals, who agreed the new qualifying format at a meeting of the FIA's Formula One commission, are due to meet again on December 4th to discuss changes to the technical regulations that could reduce costs.

Measures to be considered are expected to include the banning of some electronic aids such as two-way telemetry, which enables teams to modify cars engine systems and send instructions while they are lapping.