Wilson laments loss of mousse

It was announced by the World Motor Sport Council last week that the WRC was going to move to a new control tyre in 2008, with the abolishment of the technology that automatically injects mousse into a tyre when it begins to delaminate.

Wilson does not believe the move is a good one on safety and cost grounds, because the WMSC also introduced a rule where cars on less than four wheels will not be allowed to limp back to service.

"We are not in favour of a control tyre," Wilson told wrc.com. "However, my concern, from a safety point of view, is the loss of mousse, especially on asphalt.

"We are all trying to find ways to reduce costs and with no mousse, you may end up with a situation where a car can't get to service with the new regulation regarding driving on the roads with damaged cars.

"We've seen cars coming in with four punctures in the past and without mousse, we wouldn't have got back to service. From a cost point of view, if the driver gets a puncture near the end of a stage, he will definitely drive on and to replace a damaged corner, you're looking at anywhere between 10-20,000 euros."

Wilson was cautiously optimistic about the reintroduction of some remote servicing, provided it doesn't move too far away from the recent idea of one-fixed service park.

"As long as it's a remote tyre fuel service, then we can live with that to help the organisers," he added. "But as teams, we need a fixed base and we've all made an investment with the way the sport is going, with the single service park.

"And that's become an extremely valuable tool for Ford, with guests and dealers visiting events. So it would be a backwards step to move away from that."