Mosley ready to force changes

FIA president Max Mosley is ready to force teams to accept regulation changes ahead of 2006 if they don't come up with solutions of their own. Changes proposed by the FIA earlier this year were originally due to come into force in 2008, and some as early as 2006. But with safety concerns continually mounting, the FIA is prepared to act sooner.

After two recent high speed crashes -- Sauber's Felipe Massa at Montreal, and Williams' Ralf Schumacher at Indianapolis -- Mosley is willing to invoke Article 7.5 of the Concorde Agreement, which gives the FIA the right to act if safety is an issue. The Article was introduced after the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994.

"I expect dissent. Article 7.5 is a way of applying pressure. If the teams can't come up with the required changes, we will," Mosley was quoted as saying by The Telegraph newspaper.

"Formula One's technical working group has been saying for more than two years that engine power needs to be reduced. We have seen with Massa and Ralf Schumacher that speeds in F1 are dangerously fast. We have to act now."

It's not only the safety aspect that Mosley has in mind. Cutting costs has long been a topic of discussion and he believes the amount of money spent on engine development is unnecessary.

"No one benefits by all this money spent on engine development," he added. "It is the domain of a tiny priesthood of experts. They spend billions on researching and testing ultra-expensive components that no one sees and of which the public are completely unaware."