New Jag chief casts doubt on arbitration

A number of rival team principals were asked their opinion on the subject in Malaysia. Ove Andersson claimed that Toyota was not sufficiently established to offer any kind of view, a smiling Peter Sauber hid behind an alleged lack of English, which is actually highly competent, while David Richards, Flavio Briatore and Hogan were more forthcoming.

Briatore said: "We have so many controversial issues but what we need to do is to make sure that people watching the races are enjoying them. We need to be making sure that sport is coming back into F1. The rest is not interesting."

Hogan, a well-connected F1 figure and long-time sponsor representative on the F1 Commission in his days with Marlboro offered: "At the end of the day it is sport and, exactly as Flavio said, arbitration has nothing to do with sport. I respect them for what they are trying to do, but it isn't smart..."

BAR boss Richards added: "While I respect their views and sincerity, I feel that it was unnecessary to bring it out into the public domain 10 days before the start of the new season when everything was looking so positive."