Mosley: Team Chiefs are Monopoly Millionaires

FIA president Max Mosley hit out at Formula One's team bosses on Friday and branded them all Monopoly millionaires thanks to commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone's big-buck board.

Ecclestone has turned Formula One into a privateer sport to a multi-million dollar global event that, some claim, can rival the World Cup and the Olympics in terms of worldwide coverage. Mosley, who will leave his post in October, has become disenchanted by the team chiefs' failure to comply with his demands of reducing costs and improving the sport through a number of radical changes.

And the Briton took a swipe at them at the French Grand Prix on Friday when he said: "They (team bosses) have all become rich, extremely rich because the board on which they play has been arranged by someone else.

"Bernie has created a Monopoly board for them to play on where the money is just enormous and they have made huge sums of money. But fundamentally they are not businessmen and they are not trying to make money.

"They just long to win races. I can name two of them who are businessmen, but the overall atmosphere there is 'I just want to win the race, so if I've got 50 million dollars sponsorship I'll spend 51 and borrow a million.'

"Some of them have been made rich despite themselves because they have been given so much money they couldn't actually manage to spend it. It is not a deliberate business strategy, shall we put it like that. So when we get into a room, they all sit there and each one is thinking about their current car and defend it to the death. That is why you need the disinterested body that tries to be fair between everybody."

Mosley tried to get the team chiefs to agree to changes for 2006 including cheaper, longer-life engines, single tyre manufacturers and customer chassis but failed to secure their unanimous backing in time for the deadline.

But he remains confident that, despite the failure of the team bosses to agree on a method of change, the chance to force through some of the proposals he has been requesting will stand Formula One in good stead for the future.

"They (team chiefs) have opened the door because they increased the performance to such a point that we are fully entitled to take drastic measures and those will solve the problems," said Mosley.

With concerns over the speed of the current cars growing following a spate of recent accidents, the changes can now be brought in on safety grounds and Mosley has given the teams two months to come up with a solution.

If they fail, he will give them a further 45 days to accept his own changes and he promised: "Engines will be cheaper with less power, cars will be slower, aerodynamics will come under control and tyres will be much harder.

"The racing will get better because it will be possible to run off line, the braking distances will increase because there will be less grip, there will be all sorts of side benefits come from that. The aerodynamics will be such as apart from reducing the speeds of the cars in the fast corners and ensuring they don't go faster on the straight, they will also be conducive to overtaking and closer racing.

"Taking all those things together I'm optimistic for the future, I think it will be very successful. We are putting greater emphasis on brainwork and reducing the emphasis on money. It is completely set on the right path but, make no mistake, it is drastic, what we are about to do, but once they've been done the thing will be set on a sensible course."

Mosley said the changes to engines will only be brought in by the 2006 season but has targeted some significant aerodynamic and tyre changes in time for the start of next year.