No Going Back, Mosley Tells F1 Carmakers

Formula One's governing body has sent carmakers a clear signal that it will not back down over radical measures announced this week to cut costs and revive the sport.

While team technical heads met International Automobile Federation (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting today to look more closely at the package, FIA president Max Mosley warned that the sport was bigger than any individual team or manufacturer.

"If a major manufacturer doesn't like it, too bad," the Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying of the FIA's determination to outlaw traction control systems and other so-called 'driver aids'.

"If a major manufacturer pulls out of the sport because of it, again too bad. What we will gain from these rule changes is far bigger than what we will lose by their absence."

Representatives of the major European carmakers, who are threatening to create their own championship from 2008 and have set up a company called GPWC to run it, met in Germany on Thursday.

The FIA announced on Wednesday, after a meeting of team bosses with Mosley and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, that it would adopt a zero tolerance approach to existing regulations in 2003. That would mean strict enforcement of a rule stating that 'the driver must drive cars alone and unaided'.

Team-to-car radio systems, traction control and other electronic systems such as the 'launch control' - that allows drivers to rocket away from the grid without wheelspin - will also be outlawed.

Private Meeting

Friday's private technical meeting, at an undisclosed location, will concentrate on the timing for elimination of traction control and the introduction of standard FIA-approved electronic control units (ECUs).

The FIA said that, while it wanted to abolish traction control this season, it would allow the systems to remain in use until 2004 if teams could prove that it would cost more to replace them than to retain them.

"I would guess they will (use traction control this year) but they may all agree to end it sooner," said Mosley this week. "They've undertaken to discuss it and try to see if they can."

Mosley told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport that he expected opposition from technical directors in Friday's meeting.

"Many of them will be against because of the simple fact that, after working so hard throughout the winter, they now see so many things blocked.

"But, looking at it calmly, they will see that it was the only way to revive Formula One. There is no sense in having a futuristic technology on the track if people then turn their backs and no longer watch the races.

"I expect them (the technical heads) also to try and delay as long as possible the elimination of launch control, traction control and (fully automatic) gearboxes."

Mosley recognised resistance from some teams and was critical in particular of McLaren's stance.

"McLaren have a position that reminds me of America's during the Cold War, when they spent so much to win that conflict, also because nobody could match them on an economic level," the Gazzetta quoted him as saying.

"McLaren and Mercedes are leaning in that direction. I have read that Mercedes want to spend a fortune, for five years, and win for five seasons in a row. I don't know if it's true. If they did it, nobody could match them any more.

"In England people say that Ferrari are the team who spend the most. After seeing all the teams, I say that is not true. There are some who spend more."