Mosley: Teams' Proposal is 'Minor and Irrelevant'

FIA president Max Mosley has further shot down the proposal to limit testing in 2005, signed by nine of the ten teams in Brazil last weekend.

All teams but Ferrari have met with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday at Interlagos, and signed a proposal to limit testing during the season to ten days only, in an attempt to cut the costs of running a Formula One team. The proposal further stipulated a change to the Grand Prix weekend that will see two, 2-hour testing sessions on Friday.

Ferrari criticised the proposal and said it would not cut costs, also criticising the teams for speedily signing an agreement that was not thought out well enough.

Mosley, who was in Brazil over the weekend but was not invited to the meeting, also believed the proposal was "irrelevant", stating: "It is a completely rational plan, but the truth of it is that the teams' proposal is a minor matter and an irrelevance.

"What would be interesting was if we had a package for 2005 that got us our 20 cars," Mosley told reporters. "And we haven't got that.

"The three teams we are going to lose won't save money, because they don't test. It's a piddling package compared to the problem of keeping those three teams in business."

Changes to the regulations as well as staging more than 17 Grands Prix in one season require unanimous agreement of all ten teams. With Ferrari remaining opposed to the proposal, it seems unlikely these changes will be implemented next season.

Furthermore, in order to get a full support for the inclusion of the British and French Grand Prix, Ecclestone will have to find alternative financial compensation for the teams. Ferrari have already stated that regardless of the proposal, they will not object to the staging of these Grands Prix.