Formula One headed for a sweeping makeover

<br>MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) _ Formula One teams agreed Tuesday to sweeping changes to slash the sport's astronomic costs and inject excitement back into races by narrowing the gulf between the fastest

Tuesday, May 4th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) _ Formula One teams agreed Tuesday to sweeping changes to slash the sport's astronomic costs and inject excitement back into races by narrowing the gulf between the fastest cars and also-rans, the head of the sport's governing body said.

One of the most radical measures would have all teams running on the same tires, possibly as early as 2006. That should help level the playing field and will end the current battle between competing tire manufacturers that _ instead of drivers' skills _ can decide the outcome of world championships.

Spare cars, which drivers fall back on if they crash and wreck their machines in qualifying, could be banned from next year, said Max Mosley, head of the International Automobile Federation. That should also help trim teams' budgets.

Teams meeting in Monaco also agreed to reduce the power of F1 engines and make them last longer than one race to keep down costs, he said. Teams also agreed to use standard brakes, while electronic driver aids ``are definitely going to go,'' Mosley said.

``Except for minor details, there's virtually complete acceptance of these very revolutionary proposals,'' he said. ``I couldn't have asked for more from the meeting.''

The aim is to give F1's minnows more of a chance against free-spending teams like Ferrari, whose dominance threatens to drive away TV viewers bored by races with little overtaking or exciting wheel-to-wheel battles between drivers. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher has won all four races of the season so far, leaving smaller teams far behind.

``The basic idea is to make the racing closer and more interesting and I think we'll succeed in that,'' said Mosley. ``Whether it will be close enough remains to be seen.''

Richer teams spend heavily on finding new technologies, lighter materials and electronic gizmos that give their cars an edge. Critics argue that gives the richest teams an unfair advantage, places a premium on technicians rather than driver skills and discourages new teams from venturing into the costly world of F1.

``Everybody feels instinctively that Formula One would be better and stronger and more credible if we had one or two new teams coming in. There's a need for new teams,'' said Mosley. ``It's possible that we might see a new team in as early as 2005.''

Manufacturers together spend as much as euro1 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year on engines for 14 of the 20 cars that currently race, said Mosley _ an amount he called ``simply not sustainable.''

He said engine companies agreed to work out measures to cut engine costs by 50 percent. But it remains to be seen whether that will be done by extending the life of current engines for possibly up to six races or by introducing less powerful engines that would be used for two races or more, he said.

All ten teams were represented at the meeting, and bosses said they were satisfied.

``I was enormously pleased,'' said Eddie Jordan, whose team has struggled. ``It was all one-sided, very positive about cost savings, the key factor.''

``There wasn't any real argument on any issue,'' added David Richards of the BAR-Honda team. The measures will ``be very positive from the public's point of view.''

Mosley also said teams have to formulate new qualifying rules and he expressed optimism that changes could introduced this year. ``They've got to come up with something much better than we've got,'' he said.

Having a single tire manufacturer, meanwhile, will not only make racing fairer but also eliminate the heavy cost for teams of testing tires to eek out the best performance, said Mosley. The measure could help improve safety, too, because the manufacturer can be told to reduce the grip of tires to slow cars' cornering speeds.

``There was unanimity among the teams. Not one team said, 'No, no, we want two or three or four tire companies,'' said Mosley.