Richards Welcomes Engine Change Proposals

New BAR boss David Richards has backed cost-saving proposals to limit Formula One teams to one engine per car per race weekend from 2003, but others appear less certain of their worth.

Toyota's Ove Andersson feared limiting teams to one engine might be going too far. McLaren's Ron Dennis, without directly referring to the changes but hinting at a major debate to come in the next few months, cautioned against 'knee-jerk' responses to the financial downturn affecting the sport.

"I think it's a very sensible move forward," Richards, who took over at British American Racing (BAR) in December, told a news conference at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. "It's very clear that there are teams struggling at the back financially, we need to put a cap on some of the costs.

"It just changes the challenge slightly, like doubling the race distance or something like that. It's just a different challenge, I don't see why it shouldn't be received very well by most teams."

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley said this month the FIA must protect the sport and avoid a repeat of the Prost situation, after the French team were declared bankrupt on January 28. Prost's departure has been softened by Toyota's arrival, maintaining the grid at 11 teams.

Special Engines

The big teams use special high-revving engines for Saturday's qualifying burst, before replacing them with more durable ones for Sunday's race.

"You are looking at an engine for qualifying, an engine that you are probably going to throw away at the end of a Saturday afternoon," said Richards.

"You have also got to look at it in the context of how the public perceive our sport: a sport that sort of throws engines away after 50 km... is that the right image for us to be projecting in the future in the current environment we are in?"

The new proposals, first put to team bosses in January, are for teams to use engines designed to run for 800 km (500 miles) instead of 350 km. Any driver suffering an engine failure in qualifying would be automatically relegated to the back of the grid.

Team sources said on Thursday that other measures included a commitment for engine makers to supply more than one team and for Friday free practice to be abolished with the day handed over to promotional activities instead.

"I think it's probably a good idea to try to limit somehow the number of engines," said Andersson. "Personally I think (the idea of) one engine for a whole race weekend is a little bit too much maybe," he added.