Max Mosley: I thought it might be useful if I just spent a few minutes just coming up to date with where we are on the proposals we sent to the teams before Imola. It might be helpful if I explained the timescale, because that is the most confusing part of this whole discussion.

Quite clearly, 2008, at the end of the Concorde Agreement, we can make any changes to the regulations of the Formula One World Championship if we wish, provided that we continue to run the championship substantially in the way that it has been run in the past because that is part of the agreement we have with FOM (Formula One Management).

However, it is our hope that the substantial changes that have been put forward will come in long before 2008, but, I thought it might be interesting if I outlined what is needed in each case for change to take place.

First of all, any change to the engine or transmission has to have either unanimous agreement or wait until 2008 - so engine and transmission, you need unanimity or it has got to be after January 1, 2008. But we have to announce that change before December 31, 2005, under the Concorde Agreement. Changes to the chassis or effectively all other parts of the car, we can do no sooner than January 1, 2006, provided we have agreement of the Formula One Commission, and that, in practice, means at least 50 percent of the teams provided you have all the organisers and promoters and so forth and other people with you. So, in practice, with half the teams we could change anything except the engine and transmission on January 1, 2006.

For sporting regulations, I beg your pardon, the question of 2006, those changes would have to be announced before December 31, 2004, you have to give one clear year’s notice. So 50 percent of the teams, decision before December 31, 2004, and you could change anything on the car except the engine and transmission. Sporting regulations could be changed with effect from January 1, 2005, again with the Formula One Commission, which effectively means 50 percent of the teams. I think there is one exception to that, which is the proposal to have a single tyre manufacturer.

We require from the tyre companies that they give us a year’s notice before they come into Formula One or before they leave Formula One, whatever the legal position, it would only be fair to give them a year’s notice if we intended to go to a single tyre. So a single tyre, unless or course everybody agreed including all the tyre companies, couldn’t happen until January 1, 2006, for the 2006 season. Other sporting changes, as said, could happen on January 1, 2005, provided they are voted and announced before October 31, 2004. I am sorry it is so complex, but that is how the Concorde Agreement works – that is one of the reasons why I personally would like to get rid of it. So that is the schedule, now where are we?

On the engines, I must say there is a very serious discussion going on among the engine manufacturers. I think the great majority are in favour of going to a 2.4 V8, there is a minority who would prefer to stay with the V10, and there are some of them that are content with either solution. From our point of view, we are really waiting for a proposal. There is a great deal of discussion going on about details to do with the engines, particularly questions of parts and components and they are working on this, they have already had meetings and they have got a meeting today and I am very optimistic that we will see a substantial reduction in the cost of these engines. Now, just to be clear, of course there is nothing anyone can do to reduce the cost of an engine research programme, they do it inside the factory, they can spend what they like.
What we are trying to do is to make sure that engines for a second team or even a third or a fourth team become very inexpensive. And the two ways of doing that are to make sure that the cost of the components, the research having been done, is low, therefore the materials are readily available and that the engines last a long time, they have a long life.

With those two things you can make certain that a second or a third team could have engines inexpensively. Just to deal with one quick point there, it is sometimes suggested that if we stop people using these extraordinarily exotic materials they can get from the aerospace industry that we are in some way dumbing down Formula One. Of course, in a moment’s reflection, you can see it is exactly the opposite. If you have a problem in Formula One with your crankshaft you can go and get an exotic material. If you have a problem in a road car, where you are producing maybe a million cars, you can’t solve it by buying something very expensive, you have got to solve it by clever design. Well, why don’t we have exactly the same thing in Formula One?

If they can design it really cleverly using ordinary materials they will be more successful than people who can’t, and it is the same sort of assertion that the industry itself needs, it is a useful way of spending time and money, whereas an exotic material is a completely wasteful way of spending time and money. So, in a nutshell, the cost of the engines, the second and third teams and so on, comes down. If the major manufacturers continue to spend huge sums of money on research and development of Formula One engines it is certain that some of them will stop – sooner or later the main board will say ‘we are not prepared to spend this money and when that happens, if we want Formula One to survive in its present form, it is essential that there are inexpensive engines available for the teams which do not have a manufacturer to supply them with an engine as a first team, and the whole strategy is to get the cost of those engines down. That is really what we mean when we say low cost engines.