New traction control row brewing

According to this week's AUTOSPORT, there is growing opinion among the teams and drivers that banning traction control and other electronic 'gizmos' from the beginning of next season will do almost nothing to improve the spectacle, will have a negative impact on safety and will lead to a dramatic increase in costs.

"There is an understandable desire by the purists, of which I am one, to see the maximum opportunity for drivers to demonstrate their skill," said Ron Dennis. "But there is a misconception because of a lack of knowledge of what electronics do. Brazil is a classic example of their lack of contribution, because with these systems drivers were still making mistakes.

"Taking them away from the cars will trigger several things that are really bad for F1."

Mosley is determined to find a way to ban these driver aids however and is pushing ahead with plans to abolish them from the beginning of next season: "I've said to them that it is not a question of what you want or what we want, it's what the public want because in the end they pay for it.

"Certainly judging from the response I've had, the overwhelming number of the public are against traction control and launch control and, interestingly, when we put back the date from Silverstone to the start of 2004 there was a lot of reaction from e-mails saying, 'You've given up, you shouldn't have done that'. Most of us observers from the outside take a lot of convincing."

For the full story read this weeks edition of AUTOSPORT.