Teams agree on debris action

Formula 1 teams have agreed to adding extra protection to the bodywork of cars next season in a bid to minimize the amount of debris thrown onto tracks after collisions

The FIA has been pushing hard in recent weeks to make improvements in this area, especially in the wake of Ralf Schumacher's crash at the United States Grand Prix that was caused by a puncture after he had run over debris earlier in the race.

The Belgian Grand Prix also had to be interrupted with the Safety Car several times because of carbon fibre shards thrown onto the track during accidents.

A meeting of F1 think tank, the Technical Working Group, at Monza on Sunday morning led to a agreement among technical directors for exposed parts of the cars, especially front wing endplates and bargeboards, to be coated with an extra-strong material from the start of next season.

Although this material is likely to be Kevlar, current experiments conducted by Williams and Ferrari are looking at other options.

BMW Motorsport director Mario Theissen said: "It is true that an outer layer of Kevlar covering the carbon fibre would reduce the amount of shards on the track. You could do that with aerodynamic parts.

"If you look at the suspension you could use steel or titanium. If everyone used that it would not raise any competitive issues and it would remove carbon fibre from that area completely."

The TWG also gave approval for extra strength wheel tethers and to increasing the size of headrests.