Major Changes in Store for 2003 F1 Season
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| Despite Ferrari's dominance during the first half of the 2002 season the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal drew its usual massive crowds. |
FIA President Max Mosley pulled out all the stops this week during a last ditch effort to 'improve' the F1 spectacle. In a meeting with the 10 team principals, Mosley managed to find agreement on some drastic rules modifications, or at least tightened up the existing rules, the results of which should go a long way to making the series more entertaining and reducing the cost of fielding a team.
Mosley was openly disappointed after not achieving the desired results during several post-2002 season meetings with the team leaders. Not willing to be rejected again the determined FIA headman instead decided to enforce existing rules that could produce his objectives, rather than attempt acceptance from the often diametrically opposed F1 competitors.
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| The loss of the long running Arrows team was one of 2002's most grievous trajedies. Max Mosley hopes that lowering costs will make sure this doesn't happen again in 2003. |
The fact that two often competitive teams, Prost and Arrows, both rich in F1 history, were forced out of the series due to financial problems over the last year made matters even more pressing. The FIA, and the series itself, couldn't allow the number of teams to drop below ten, and with a few of the remaining teams looking all too likely not to complete the 2003 season for similar reasons it was time to take a stand.
As clearly stated in the current edition of the Concorde Agreement the FIA needs unanimous agreement from all teams for any 2003 changes, but given the ambiguity of the rule book's wording it is possible for the independent ruling body to 'clarify' statements in the regulations. It can then "rigorously apply existing rules" without physically "changing" the rules themselves, therefore it doesn't need to achieve unanimous agreement as there's nothing new to vote on.