Wheels in Motion for Safety Change

The wheels have been set in motion for a raft of safety changes to be introduced in 2005 after team technical chiefs confirmed on Friday that a document of suggestions has been sent to the sport's governing body the FIA.

FIA president Max Mosley demanded the sport's Technical Working Group get together to suggest a proposal to improve car safety next year after concerns that speeds have become too high.

Heavy crashes involving Brazilian Felipe Massa in Canada and German Ralf Schumacher in the United States last month led Mosley to demand change on safety grounds - which does not need unanimous agreement from the teams.

After a meeting on Tuesday, the TWG have called for a quick turn-around in the approval process so that they can get on with designing their 2005 challengers as soon as possible.

"The meeting was an information gathering exercise which I think will formulate probably 95 per cent of the FIA's proposal," Williams technical director Sam Michael said.

"Now we'll have to wait until next Friday to see what the FIA put back to the TWG for approval and the easiest thing is to accept that and get on with it because then from next Friday we can get on with designing our 2005 cars.

"Whenever you have something like this put on you quickly, you have to make bigger cuts than you probably would like to but it's for the reasons that the FIA have said so, all in all, I think we're fairly happy with it."

The teams have targeted aerodynamics, mechanical, and tyre design changes to stem the speeds because engine manufacturers failed to agree on radical steps to reduce power in time for the FIA's recent deadline.

There are still plans for a long-term reduction in engine power but for now the teams have been forced to concentrate on other areas and believe they can make the necessary design changes to achieve their aims.

"We established that our target was to reduce the performance of the cars back to the lap times we had in 2002/2003 - that is about a three seconds-per-lap reduction," said Geoff Willis, BAR-Honda technical director.

"The TWG looked at the chassis and aerodynamic regulations and have unanimously come up with a set of proposals that we believe will slow the cars down by 1.5s to 1.75s per lap. The tyre proposals, even though not fully agreed yet, are clearly able to slow the cars down by 1.5s to 2s so I believe that we have done what is required and we can move on quite quickly.

"But what is most critical is that we can just get a set of regulations so we can carry on designing the cars and that it is fixed in the next few weeks. None of the teams can afford this to be left undone any longer."

Renault technical director Pat Symonds, however, warned against such sudden reactions and, while he accepts the FIA's requirements, he believes a long-term approach is what is needed.

"There is a real drive now to reduce the cost of Formula One and we need to be careful that we don't rush in one direction," warned Symonds. "We have not actually agreed that the cars are too fast at the moment. We have agreed that if we don't do something they will become too fast. I believe we have done a very professional job on the safety aspect and let's hope that we can do the same on the monetary aspect and the sporting aspect."

The FIA's calls for safety changes came after the teams failed to agree to a raft of radical changes - including a ban on electronic driver aids and a move to a single tyre manufacturer - in time for them to be introduced in 2006.