NOVEMBER 1, 2001

FIA votes through testing regulations

THE FIA says that it will shortly publish the latest regulations regarding testing restrictions in Formula 1 and says that McLaren boss Ron Dennis was wrong in Japan when he suggested that the governing body had not carried out the correct procedures in deciding the rules. The FIA announced after the World Council meeting in Cologne on October 3 that "the FIA will no longer limit the amount of testing teams carry out". This applied from the start of the new season.

Dennis claimed on October 12 that the regulation was not correct as the correct procedures had not been carried out. The FIA says that on the same day (Europe being behind Japan in terms of time zones) a fax vote was sent out to the members of the F1 Commission and that 10 days later (on October 22) there had been only five votes against the new regulations suggested and so this was then passed on to the World Council (presumably by a fax vote) and was agreed before the end of October deadline for changes to the Sporting Regulations. The new regulation will be published shortly in the next FIA Bulletin.