FEBRUARY 16, 2005

The granting of superlicences

The stories suggesting that Patrick Friesacher does not qualify for a Super Licence are totally erroneous. According to Article 5, Appendix L of the FIA Sporting Code Friesacher qualifies automatically for a super licence having been classified in the first four of the final classification of the FIA F3000 International Championship within the last two years. Friesacher ended 2004 in fourth place in the championship (he was also fifth in 2003).

There should however be questions about the two Jordan drivers and Christijan Albers who do not automatically qualify for Super Licences and have to go through a different process. According to the rules a Formula 1 Super Licence is issued by the Formula 1 Commission following a specific request and recommendation from the driver's national sporting authority, accompanied by a list of his results. If a driver does not automatically qualify there are "exceptional circumstances" in which a driver might be judged suitable by the Bureau of the Formula 1 Commission so long as he has driven at least 300km in a current F1 car at racing speeds, over a maximum period of 2 days.

The Permanent Bureau is made up of FIA President Max Mosley, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, Ferrari's Jean Todt and McLaren's Ron Dennis. Should the members of the Bureau not agree unanimously, the Commission in its entirety will be consulted. The need to grant superlicences might result in the need to call a Formula 1 Commission, something which appears to have been avoided by some parties in recent months. There have in the past been fax votes on such matters but it seems that recently there has been a question over whether fax votes are legal as apparently they are not mentioned in the Concorde Agreement.

As a result of this we would expect all super licences will be granted without too much trouble.