Editor's Note: Shortly after this column was written, F-1 issued a change in its previously announced rules. Technical Delegate Charlie Whiting, decided to allow car to pit radios (but they will be provided to television) and allowing spare cars to replace damaged cars providing they start at the back of the grid.

Maybe they read Lewis' words?

Formula One rules makers finally woke up to something that American fans knew for a long time. The series had become ridiculously expensive and the racing had become boring.

Then they issued a set of rules meant to change that. Some of them made no sense.

For example, they have banned radio ommunication between driver and pit (Art 60, iii), only two cars will be scrutineered per team (Art. 70), spare cars will not be scrutineered (save in exceptional circumstances as authorized by the stewards) and will therefore not be used (Art 84) and, immediately after qualifying all cars will be locked up in the parc ferme until shortly before the start of the race (Art 71a).

I cannot understand the rationale of banning driver-to-pit radios. The cost of in-car radios won’t mean a financial break-even point.

Worse, think of the safety issue brought up by the lack of communication. While Formula One drivers don’t use spotters, like oval track racers, each team has a bank of television screens on its timing platforms. Surely, if there was an accident a few turns ahead, the team could warn a driver of impending doom. Not under the new rules.

Being a far flung series Formula One is dependent on the local governing body to provide track safety marshals who are totally unknown to the drivers. Maybe a driver wouldn’t respect a local yellow at that point.

A radio communication from the pit might avert a disaster. That extra margin of safety has now been taken away.

The spare car situation is even less clear. There is an obvious cost savings in bringing two cars versus three. But what about this scenario? Suppose a driver crashes in the final practice after qualifying his car.

Under the rule impounding the vehicle until the start of the race, there is no way to repair or replace it. If a car is totally wrecked in any session there will be one less car on the grid. That flies in the face of one of the reasons for the new rules: ending the loss of cars on the Formula One grid.

The FIA press release states that the sanctioning body is concerned with the loss of two Formula One teams. If a team has one car or both cars fail to make a race, it will not earn championship points and won’t be eligible for certain payments. No points, no money and – poof – one less Formula One team.

All of this brings us to the stated reasons for all of the new regulations. In the release, the Concorde Agreement, the document that controls all business aspects of the series, states since there are only ten teams, “ those remaining are obliged to … finance and run two extra cars for each additional team which fails to attend an event.’’

The FIA realized that a team like Minardi, which barely has enough money to stay in the series, couldn’t make any contribution to yet another rival.

Worse, an all-team meeting on December 4th, 2002, failed to result in any agreement between the team owners to reduce costs. By the way, does failure to agree, among owners remind anyone else of the CART series pre-2002?

Again the FIA (read Max Moseley and Formula One’s el Supremo, Bernie Ecclestone) had to react and quickly to save the series. I think that, whoever published the rules, intended this to get everyone’s immediate reaction. And, if they were too harsh, a small tweaking could be done, leaving important and pertinent provisions intact while taking out the unexplained ones.

In other words, I think, it’s an opening shot. When all the teams agree to something, they’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and think it was a good deal.

Then Ecclestone and Moseley will have gotten what they want and Formula One can be saved, for now, from further turmoil.

They’ll be praised as saviors of the series and all will be right again… that is until threat of a manufacturers’ series comes closer, but that’s for another column.
lf