FIA at odds with EU over terrorism measure

Commission spokesperson Pietro Petrucci added: "In any case we don't see why we would make an exception [for F1] and why we shouldn't have confidence in the justice system."

Referring to the EU Commissioner, Antonio Vitorino, the FIA's Paris office swiftly issued the following response: "Mr Vitorino is clearly unaware that one EU government has already confirmed that the relevant provisions of the European Arrest Warrant do not apply to sport. We anticipate that other EU governments will agree. No F1 team considers itself above the law but they will not race where they do not feel safe. Mr Vitorino may not understand this, but those who apply EU laws do."

Earlier, Mosley had emphasized that the F1 teams are serious in threatening to boycott events in countries subject to the EU's new legislation. He told BBC Radio: "Unless the teams are given binding assurances that these procedures won't be used against them in the event of an accident, they simply won't race. There are no bail provisions [because] it has been rushed through on the basis of terrorism. So it's a real menace."

The EAWs allow the arrest, extradition and detention of people being prosecuted in countries signed up to the new anti-terrorism legislation. Mosley continued: "If you get locked up while that's going on, that's just outrageous - and it's quite possible under the new system. A local magistrate could simply order the arrest of whoever was concerned, have them carted off to the relevant country, and they could be locked up there until there was a trial."

Indeed, the first recorded use of a European Arrest Warrant had nothing to do with terrorism. After a request from Swedish authorities, a local Spanish magistrate in Alicante served an EAW earlier this month on a Swedish citizen, who was promptly arrested to face drink-driving and drugs charges in his home country.

Mosley concluded by stressing that the teams were not seeking to abrogate their responsibilities: "The team owners are not saying they're not responsible [for driver or spectator fatalities] or that they'd object to being put on trial. They're saying that they don't want to be arrested as soon as they're prosecuted and carted off to jail somewhere to await trial. It effects not only the team principals but also the engineers and mechanics - everyone concerned with the team."