Rivals Criticise McLaren-Williams Arbitration

The plans of Formula One team bosses Frank Williams and Ron Dennis to take the sport's governing body, the FIA, to arbitration over the recent rule changes were criticised by their rival team chiefs today.

Williams and Dennis have begun the process of arbitration to contest the FIA's "dictatorial" approach to the rule changes, which they believe were not strictly legal to be imposed under the current Concorde Agreement.

But the pair, who previously said that the sport's manufacturer-backed teams were behind their plan, on Friday received a blow to their case when bosses of both Jaguar and Renault criticised their latest move.

"What they are trying to do isn't smart," said Jaguar sporting director John Hogan. "I respect them for it but at the end of the day it's a sport and arbitration has nothing to do with sport."

The pair were angered by the manner in which the changes were introduced by FIA president Max Mosley, who gathered the teams together in January and laid down the new laws with little discussion.

But Renault chief Flavio Briatore believes it is dangerous for Williams and Dennis to take on the FIA and said their plans to drag the sport through the courts will take away from the action on the track.

"I think Formula One needs to talk about sport and not arbitration," said Briatore. "Something like this is not nice and it is not good. It doesn't bring anything good to us. We have so many controversial issues and we need to talk about these. We need to make sure that people who are watching the races are enjoying watching the races.

"We need to make sure that sport is coming back into Formula One, to make sure we have stability, and I think this is what we should be looking at for the future. The rest is not interesting."

Williams and Dennis have combined forces to take on the FIA and their legal teams have already placed a request for arbitration. The first hearing, which will be held in Switzerland, is expected to take place in May.