JANUARY 18, 2003

FIA offers $1m reward to catch cheats

The FIA is planning to offer a $1 million reward to anyone who provides evidence of cheating in F1 this year. The reward will be paid from heavy fines which will be levied on any offenders. The FIA says it is looking to ban all the major electronic systems this year and that anyone cheating will be nailed

The FIA is planning to offer a $1 million reward to anyone who provides evidence of cheating in F1 this year. The reward will be paid from heavy fines which will be levied on any offenders. The FIA says it is looking to ban all the major electronic systems this year and that anyone cheating will be nailed - perhaps even by their own employees. With such a huge reward on offer it is quite possible that team employees would be willing to spill the beans to the federation. The news comes after a Technical Working Group meeting on Friday which got bogged down when one of the teams blocked every move being suggested. It is anticipated that there will be another meeting shortly in order to break the log jam.

FIA sources say that the attitude at the meeting will probably result in the federation adopting an even harder line and insisting that all the electronic systems be turned off from the start of the 2003 season. Several teams have already started testing the current cars to see if this is possible. BAR and Toyota are both believed to have run their cars with the systems disconnected.