FEBRUARY 25, 2003
Mosley blasts Williams and Dennis
Mosley accused the two team bosses of being "unfocused" in its reponse to his proposals and does not indicate that the team bosses agree with some of the changes.
"It is impossible to have a dialogue if the response to a carefully considered set of proposals is a collekction of vague claims and confused criticisms with no discernible attempt to address the arguments," Mosley wrote, although he went on to address the various issues raised by the teams.
Mosley said that he had asked the teams' solicitors to give details of how the FIA had breached the Concorde Agreement but said that they had refused to respond and so asked them to give him an answer.
The FIA president also challenged the belief that the teams should get more money.
"Even if the entire FOM income were distributed among the teams, current cost levels would be unsustainable," Mosley said. He went on to point out that nothing had changed since the two teams agreed to sign the Concorde Agreement in 1998.
Mosley also challenged the teams to show how the rules will "dumb down" the sport and suggested that the teams hire two halls and publicise that one would feature F1 drivers and the other electronics experts and see the result. H ealso challenged the argument that the FIA is being pessimistic.
On the issue of the manufacturers Mosley was outspoken, pointing out that they do not consistently support the sport but come and go at will.
"They are answerable to their shareholders not to the sport," Mosley wrote."They can and will leave the sport whenever it suits them. This is not a criticism, it is a fact. We must never be so naive as to believe we can rely on them. The top executive is an employee. He could be out of the job next week. It would be folly to allow F1 to be at the mercy of personnel and policy changes in the major manufacturers."
Msoley went on to challenge the argument about safety issues saying that it was "obvious nonsense" to claim that cars that have been run for only 150km must have 18 hours to be rebuilt for a 300km race although cars are regularly rebuilt in less than two hours after accidents. Mosley called this a "threadbare argument" and added that teams can fit a warning light if they wish to indicate problems in the cars rather than needing telemetry.
Mosley also challenged the statement that the teams had agreed a lot in their meeting in December. He said that the only item agreed was that a list of items would not be changed between qualifying and the race and this he said was "inadequate". He claimed that all the other measures were conditional.
Mosley also attacked the statement that the two teams have been proactive in discussions over the rules, pointing out that the teams have challenged Bernie Ecclestone's decision to pay the Prost GP TV money to Minardi and added that Dennis's public statements about Minardi "speak for themselves".
Mosley also said that theethe FIA has yet to receive any offer from the GPWC but said that "I have yet to meet the CEO of a major car company who does not support the FIA."
The FIA President then went onto the attack, calling the teams "irrresponsible" for going public with the arbitration before the FIA had even received the letter from the teams and accused them of "again destabilising the FIA Formula 1 World Championship".
Mosley concluded that "plainly the best way to deal with the problem would be to discuss new rules rather than the more rigorous implementation of existing ones. But we cannot do that if you refuse to meet us, as you did in December."