Formula One Votes for Broad Changes

LONDON October 29, 2002: Stephen Wade writing for The AP reported that Formula One expects to produce closer races next season, and spend less money doing it.

The FIA's Formula One Commission voted in favor of sweeping changes to testing, qualifying and the points system Monday, hoping to keep Ferrari from repeating this season's display of dominance in which they won 15 of 17 races.

Team orders that "interfere with the race results" were also banned.

"The main changes today were the money issues," said Niki Lauda, team director of Jaguar. "Qualifying changes and testing are money issues."

The 26-member commission, headed by FIA president Max Mosley and F1's commercial head Bernie Ecclestone, turned down a proposal that would have added weight to the fastest car, and a plan to have drivers switch teams for the first 10 races.

"What we have to do is walk a fine line between not doing enough, and on the other side doing too much," Mosley said at a London meeting.

"On balance, it seems that what we are doing is likely to produce a significant change," he said. "And it would have been a mistake to do too much in one go."

F1 officials decided changes were needed after Ferrari won 15 of 17 races last season, with Schumacher winning a record 11 events. Ferrari's dominant performance resulted in a drop in TV ratings and questions from sponsors.

The commission approved changes for qualifying, testing, points and tires.

Mosley and Ecclestone were the main proponents of the team-swapping and weight handicapping. But they said the changes that were approved should make the sport more exciting.

"Ballast was thrown out because people felt it was probably better to find a solution where we didn't put anyone under any sort of difficulty," Mosley said.

Ferrari and McLaren had come out against the two radical proposals.

"Good sense has prevailed," said Ferrari president Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo, who threatened to pull out of the series if radical plans were adopted.

Ecclestone believes the changes will help McLaren and BMW Williams challenge Ferrari.

"We hope that what has happened will liven things up," Ecclestone said. "They are competitive teams, not happy with being where they are. They're not used to losing. I'm sure they are going to chase Ferrari next year.

"They don't want a handout, they want to beat the competition fair and square."

Schumacher, who won his third straight title, set F1 records for most season victories (11), most points in a season (144), largest winning points margin (67), and most career wins (64).

Schumacher and Barrichello, who won four times, finished 1-2 in nine races. The constructors' title went to Ferrari in a landslide with 221 points, followed by Williams (92) and McLaren (67).

Next season, points will be awarded to the top eight finishers instead of top six.

The winning driver will continue to get 10 points, but the second-place finisher will get 8 points instead of 6. Points will be awarded to the next six finishers in descending order. The current points system awarded points by twos, 10-6-4-3-2-1.

Qualifying sessions will be held on Friday and Saturday, instead of just one session on Saturday. Qualifying will also include cars running alone on the track.

"This is going to put a lot of pressure on people to get the job done in one single flying lap," Mosley said.

A voluntary testing system will be introduced, and teams will be allowed to use two different dry tires at each event.

In a separate decision, the Belgian Grand Prix was dropped from the schedule because of a ban on tobacco advertising.