Saturday October 12th, 2002

By Alan Baldwin

Formula One teams are more likely to agree on horse racing style weight handicaps than a radical plan for drivers to swap cars, says FIA president Max Mosley.

But the International Automobile Federation head said the chance of either proposal - part of a package of ideas to spice up the show in the face of flagging television audiences - being accepted was only 50-50.

Teams will discuss the plans at a meeting of the FIA's Formula One commission, which also groups sponsors and promoters, on October 28.

"My particular favourite, that I think the teams are unlikely to accept, is the driver swap," said Mosley at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday.

"Something that is much more likely is (Formula One supremo) Bernie (Ecclestone)'s idea of a kilo a point. That might go through. Apart from that, other more detailed things are much more likely to succeed."

In a long and detailed interview with a group of reporters, Mosley nonetheless made clear that he would love to see World Champion Michael Schumacher trade his flawless Ferrari for a tail-end Minardi. The Briton said something had to be done to make the Championship closer than this year, where Ferrari have won 14 of the 16 races so far.

"We have got a problem that people have stopped watching the television. It's never been a problem like this before. Maybe it's because people got spoiled," he said. "According to Bernie it has now started in the last few races to be quite serious and he is getting serious complaints from TV companies."

Controversial Suggestion

Ideas on the table include a suggestion that drivers race for every team as well as less eye-catching technical measures such as long-life engines and restricted aerodynamic developments.

Testing could be limited and qualifying spread over two days rather than just for one hour on Saturday.

Mosley said the measures fell into two categories - improving the show and saving costs - and both were necessary. "Even the biggest and richest teams are going to suffer badly if the smallest three or four go out of business," he said.

This year Prost have already folded, Arrows are facing closure and Minardi boss Paul Stoddart warned on Saturday that he could be forced out if legal action to recover television revenues paid to him went ahead.

Mosley acknowledged that the driver swap idea was the most controversial and fraught with contractual difficulties but said there was a "very strong case" for it.

"If you did have this plan ... the best driver and the best team would emerge and there would really be no doubt at the end of the season who was the best driver and which was the best team.

"It also has the fascination of seeing what certain drivers could do in certain cars. We would never again hear drivers saying 'If only I could drive the Ferrari or the McLaren, I would be right up there.' We'd see exactly what they could do."

Kilo Handicap

Turning to the idea of adding a kilo to a driver's car for every point won, Mosley said he had been distressed to see a newspaper headline declaring him to be anti-Ferrari.

"That's completely false," he said. "Whichever is the best team would actually win the championship with the kilo a point. It's just that it will take them longer and it will be more difficult and they will win at the end of the season rather than at the beginning.

"It will be much, much more exciting. If you analyse it, and some of the teams are doing computer simulations of what would have happened this year had we had the system, there is no question that Ferrari would have won but not by so much and not so quickly.

"Provided it doesn't interfere with the result you cannot object to it. Its a perfectly acceptable system. You are not fixing races, you are evening up the differences between the teams but still ending up with the same team winning the Championship."

Mosley said that Ecclestone was arguing for the measure to be approved as a sporting regulation, which could be passed with 18 of the 26 votes at what the FIA president expected to be a 'lively' meeting.

"We can't force anything through," he said. "What we are really saying is that we need to change the sporting regulations if we can so that we don't affect the outcome of the Championship but we make it more likely that it will go to the end."

Apart from the teams, the commission includes Ecclestone as commercial rights holder, Mosley, eight race promoters - four of them from Europe - two sponsors, one engine supplier and one representative for the two tyre manufacturers.

Published at 11:05:18 GMT