JUNE 26, 2002

Mosley "irritated but impotent"

FIA President Max Mosley told the international media that he was "irritated but impotent" about team orders because he found himself unable to punish the team for what happened at the Austrian Grand Prix because Ferrari did nothing wrong and the drivers were contracted to obey team orders.

Mosley said that the FIA had set up a four-person working group to consider the issue but declined to say who was on it. He also announced that the FIA would be establishing a web page at www.fia.com so that the general public could come up with solutions to the problem as the members of the World Council had been unable to solve the issue.

"It is easy to see what is wrong," he said. "It is easy to vote through a regulation to say that team orders are prohibited, but how do we enforce it? Maybe there is a solution. Maybe there is someone who can tell us what to do."

Mosley said that everyone in the sport had been surprised by the reaction from the general public.

"I was amazed and I think others were too," he said.

Mosley said that Ferrari had convinced the World Council that it had not done anything prejudicial to the competition. We understand that this was done by arguing that the competition was simply between the Ferraris and did not involve any others.