Mosley: Changes will save sport

Formula One chief Max Mosley believes the sport was in danger of complete collapse without the introduction of this week’s revolutionary rule changes.

Driver aids, such as traction control and launch control are to be phased out by the 2004 season while spare cars and direct communication between the pit lane and the driver have been scrapped for the coming year.

The changes have been made in response to the deteriorating interest in F1, which has been increasingly dominated by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.

In addition, the decision of the Prost and Arrows teams to pull out of the sport and concern surrounding the future of Minardi and Jordan, two of the three remaining independent teams, led to a feeling of further erosion in F1’s standing in the sporting world.

While the changes have not been widely accepted, McLaren chief Ron Dennis being a chief dissenter, Mosley claims there was no option if F1 was to continue in his present form.

“In the medium to long term, F1 could have collapsed,” Mosley told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“One or two of the independent teams might have stopped. The bigger sides might not have been able to run a third car and they might have stopped as well.

“If we had left everything as it was, the whole thing could have spiralled.”

Dennis believes teams should stand or fall by their own success and is concerned that halting technological progress in F1 will weaken its position at the forefront of the car industry.

Some have claimed the rule changes take the sport back a decade in terms of technology but with results becoming more and more predictable, Mosley felt there was a consensus of agreement about the ground-breaking move.

“To begin with there was a shocked silence,” said Mosley.

“One or two teams were against and most of the others had reservations on one point or another. Ron Dennis said he had so much to say he didn’t want to say anything but in the end the consensus was that something had to be done.

“When you know who is going to win each race because the cars are so reliable it becomes uninteresting.

“If you eliminate some of the electronic aids, you eliminate some of the uncertainty. But in the end the best team will win, so we are not punishing success.”

Minardi and Jordan have received £10million each from the larger teams in an effort to ensure they get through the season, such was the fear of the F1 grid not being able to muster 10 teams for the coming year.

“When it gets so bad that teams are going out, you realise that if it continues there will be someone else to follow.

“You can’t say who but it’s obvious that Minardi and Jordan would have been struggling if Bernie Ecclestone and the other teams had not come up with this package.”