Teams Accept Some of Mosley's 2008 Plans
Formula One teams are set to embrace some of the major elements of FIA president Max Mosley's proposed rules package for 2008, although they are likely to resist attempts to make car parts too standard, Autosport-Atlas can reveal
Mosley published the FIA's proposals for future regulations prior to the United States Grand Prix weekend and has asked the teams to come forward with their own ideas before the end of next month so that the future regulations can be agreed by the end of this year.
And although it had been thought that the teams would reject Mosley's radical overhaul of the sport, which includes a 90 percent reduction in downforce, the introduction of standard brakes and gearboxes, the return to slick tyres and the banning of electronic driver aids, it now appears the team's proposals mirror many of the FIA's ideas.
Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who has played a major role in discussions between teams in formulating rules for 2008, told Autosport-Atlas that the teams were close to lodging their proposals with the FIA.
"We have a whole set of proposals almost ready to go which are not dissimilar to Max's," he said. "What we are targeting is performance levels of the cars from 2001 and safety levels from the cars at the end of 2007.
"We want aerodynamic downforce to be about 30% of what it was in 2004, and roughly where we started this year. We want to see the mechanical grip increased, so you have slick tyres, but you have one manufacturer so that the constructions and compound is always going to be within the margins."
It is understood that the team's proposals also include:
- A single specification of dry tyre for each race weekend
- A maximum of seven standard gear ratios with teams still allowed to build their own gearboxes
- A limitation on the use of expensive materials
- The elimination of traction control
- The return of tyre changes
Stoddart added that he believed a rules package for 2008 could be agreed with the FIA in plenty of time, which would go some way to staving off the threat of a manufacturers' breakaway championship.
"Formula One doesn't need problems, it needs solutions," he said. "We need one championship going forward in 2008 and I sincerely hope it will be the FIA Formula One World championship, but it is only going to be that if we have sensible governance between now and 2008.
"There is a process going on and plenty of time to produce a sensible kind of solution."
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