Friday April 7th, 2000

Williams Team's Technical Director, Patrick Head, expressed his support to the FIA's initiative to stamp out suspected breeching of the F1 regulations which ban traction control.

The changes, which come into effect at the British Grand Prix, include a ban on automatic pitlane speed limiters, the software for which FIA believes some teams have been using to create the effect of traction control, something which has been banned from F1 for the last six years.

"BMW and Williams support the direction the FIA is taking in this," Head said. "Maybe the rules need to be simplified so that the governing body can have better confidence that what they say are the rules are adhered to.

"The problem has been one of interpretation of these rules. There's a distinction between wording and interpretation and when you have competitive people trying to see an advantage in the wording, then this sort of thing can happen.

"I cannot say that I think another team is cheating, but it's in the interests of every team to know that they are competing on a level playing field with every other team."

Asked of his reaction to the revelation from FIA President Max Mosley that he had evidence that one team from last year was breaking the rules, Head commented: "I understand that it was not WilliamsF1.

"If this breaking of the rules was just a question of interpretation rather than a clear breach then I do not think that a penalty would be appropriate. If, however, it was more blatant then I do think such a penalty would be appropriate."