FEBRUARY 3, 2005

The FIA and the Formula 1 teams

In a sudden burst of unexpected but welcome transparency, the FIA has published a lengthy set of documents relating to the current negotiations with the Formula 1 teams which detail the various stages of negotiation between FIA President Max Mosley and the team principals with regard to the rules and how they have been made in recent years. This is a good thing as too much secrecy for the sake of secrecy has been a problem the sport has been suffering from for some time.

It has been fairly clear from what has been going on in recent months that the FIA supports a single tyre supplier and restricted testing although not on the timescale that the teams - other than Ferrari - would like to have seen.

The documents include a massive letter from Paul Stoddart giving details of some the perceptions that exist amongst the team owners about the FIA and the way it goes about making rules.

We will go into more detail when we have time to analyse the documents.