22/05/2006
NEWS STORY
In an article for F1 Racing magazine, Max Mosley has returned to a notion he first suggested in 2002 - and which, in all honesty, sounds as ludicrous now as it did then - driver swapping.
Though he doesn't expect to be taken up on the proposal, Mr Mosley is suggesting that drivers, rather than race for one particular team, could represent all the teams over the course of a Grand Prix season.
"If it were up to me I would introduce a system you might think impractical or even fairly mad," writes the Englishman, "but don't worry, I've been suggesting it without success for 20 years and it would probably not get through the FIA democratic procedures.
"Let's assume that there are 12 teams and 18 races," he continues. "Each driver would drive each car once so that after the first 12 races all 24 drivers would have driven the cars of each team owner. At this point, the leading driver would nominate the six different teams for whom he would drive in the last six races. The driver laying second in the championship would then make his choice, and so on. The order in which each driver drives for each team would be decided by lot.
"Invitations would go to 24 drivers internationally and the selectors, however chosen (and possibly including the public), choose the best," he suggests. "The 24 drivers would be paid a modest basic fee by the commercial rights holder, but would be free to have their own sponsors.
"It would be fascinating wouldn't it to see how Michael Schumacher would get on in a McLaren or STR, or Kimi Raikkonen in a Renault or Midland.
"Most importantly, no-one could ever say that a driver won the world championship because he had the best car or the car would because it had the best driver," he adds. "A lot of illusions would be shattered."
In the article Max clarifies that he is merely suggesting the sort of things he'd like to see in F1 if he could; "do whatever I liked".
Following (Paul Ricard boss) Philippe Gurdjian's proposal of a 'VIP only' Grand Prix, one has to hope that these people never get their way.