Mosley: One team cheated in '99

FIA president Max Mosley.
He said the sport's governing believes the team may have flouted the
regulations by using an outlawed traction control system.

The devices - which help with car control - were outlawed at the end of the 1993 season.

The revelation comes as the sport's governing body declared war on the
team's increasingly sophisticated electronic systems and did a u-turn in
finally admitting it could not effectively police traction control.

Mosley said if traction control was allowed it would "be an end to modern
Grand Prix racing as we know it."

Asked directly if one of the teams may have been competing with an illegal
car he said: "We believe that may have been the case."

"It had come to our notice that something was going on last season that we
believe was totally unacceptable. We got all the details that demonstrated
something had slipped through the net

"I am not prepared to name the team but they were prepared to do something
that was not a question of interpreting the rules but was quite clearly
outside them.

"We have got to stop assuming major companies would not be involved in
actions that were against the the rules.

"That has produced a slightly different attitude and we are not prepared to
take anything on trust any more.

"We became aware of it over the winter but we don't have 100 per cent proof
but we are sure enough to know this is something we have got to put a stop
to."

"When we do we will have a word with them. But I do not believe it
materially affected the course of the championship."

"Our fundamental task is to make sure racing is fair.

"Our job is to look each one team and say we can guarantee to you no other
team is cheating and know we are right when we say that."

"There is nothing worse in any form of motor sport than when you have a
culture of infringement of the rules," said Mosley.

"When you get that you are getting to a stage where even the completely
honest man has to cheat to be competitive.

"It happened in the world rally championship and we stopped it. There are
beginning to be signs that it might be happening in Formula One and we are
determined to stop it.

"We are determined to stop it because it is the most unpleasant culture.

From Silverstone drivers will have to control pit lane speeds themselves
because Mosley believes the electronic speed limiters are also being used
as start-line launch control systems.

"Fundamentally wat we are doing is preventing people measuring the speed of
the engine at one point on the engine.