World Motor Sport Council round-up

Max Mosley, the president of the sport's governing body, had recently warned that the FIA would get tough following a number of breaches of the rules on recent rallies.

Legally, drivers can only make notes on the stages as part of an official pre-event recce, but several have been caught carrying out illegal extra reconaissance. The situation is particularly prevalent on asphalt rallies, were roads are open to the public for the majority of the year.

Wednesday's World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped the recommendation, which will be carried out by the ASN (national organising body) of each competitor who is caught.

Rule changes and decision-making for the World Rally Championship should be streamlined following the adoption of a Formula 1-style WRC Commission and WRC Technical Working Group.

As in F1, the WRC Commission will formulate recommendations to be adopted by the sport's governing body, the FIA, at its World Motor Sport Councils, while the WRC Technical Working Group, consisting of engineers from the participating manufacturers, will be charged with coming up with technical recommendations.

The 13-man WRC Commission will consist of FIA president Max Mosley - or his representative - plus, five representatives from the participating manufacturers, five event promoters, the president of the FIA Rally Commission Shekhar Mehta and the president of commercial rights holder ISC, which is David Richards.

Nine votes will be required to put a proposal in front of the World Motor Sport Council and the 13 commission members will have to be re-elected each year.

The Sanremo Rally is off the hook for 2001 after providing a safety plan to show it has tackled the spectator problems that marred last year's event. The asphalt event's format in 2000 consisted of a small number of stages repeated several times, leading to major spectator congestion.

But the FIA has warned that if there is any repeat on this year's event, scheduled for October 5-7, the Italian WRC round will be scrapped for 2002.

The rules on changing gearboxes and differentials have been relaxed. Only one change per day will still be allowed, but this can be done at any service park. Previously, changes could be made at only one designated service area.