SEPTEMBER 11, 2004

Mosley dismisses arbitration threat

FIA President Max Mosley says that he is pushing ahead with his plan to have 2.4-litre V8 engines despite the fact that the Concorde Agreement includes a clause which specifically states that Formula 1 will be run for 3-litre V10s until the end of the agreement in December 2007.

"There is a clause in the Concorde agreement that says we cannot change the engine or the transmission or anything that affects the performance of them without the unanimous agreement of the teams," Mosley said. "But the clause that we are relying on to change the regulations to slow the cars down says that it can be imposed provided the procedures are followed notwithstanding anything else contained in the agreement. So the answer is we can do it."

Mosley said that the clause was "a footling point" and when asked why teams were willing to go to huge expense to challenge him, replied that: "We'll see how footling it is if they do".