> Mosley reassures independents

Formula 1’s remaining independent teams will not be marginalised in Formula 1 following the breakthrough deal struck by the FIA and the sport's leading carmakers, Max Mosley has insisted.

Wednesday's announcement stipulated that from 2008 the decision-making process in F1 will be in the hands of the FIA and the manufacturers at main board level.

Although all teams on the 2007 grid are linked to a carmaker in one way or another, Williams, both Red Bull squads and Spyker will no longer be represented directly when rule changes are framed in the future.

But Mosley has assured the few independent teams left in the sport that their interests will be safeguarded.

“They are very much represented by us because we have always been defenders of the independent teams and we are in full agreement with the manufacturers that we need the independent teams and we must arrange the rules so they can stay in,” he said in an interview released by the FIA on Thursday.

“They don’t altogether forgo their say because we would find it very difficult to do something if all the independent teams were against it.

“And they will have their say in doing the detailed rules.

“But in the end F1 has to be in tune with the major manufacturers and in tune with society.”

Moreover Mosley believes that such teams will benefit from the changes to be included in the new Concorde Agreement from 2008 – which will see a commitment to introducing road-relevant, energy-efficient devices into F1.

The rules will allow teams to buy ‘off-the-shelf’ packages from the manufacturers at what is being billed as an affordable price.

Mosley claims this will save independent teams a substantial amount of money, while also promoting the carmakers' technology.

“For example, in 2009 anyone who wants can fit the device which recovers the energy from braking and uses it again for acceleration,” he said.

“But an independent team, or indeed a manufacturer, does not have to develop that technology.

“There will be a set price for which those who have developed the technology are obliged to sell it to another team.

“So manufacturer ‘A’ might decide not to spend the money on developing the device. But they will have to buy it from manufacturer ‘B’.

“But if I’ve got an independent team, I can go along to whichever manufacturer has developed the most successful system and buy it ready made.

“The manufacturer is actually pleased to sell it because it shows his technology is the best.

“So it is a win-win situation in contrast to where we were previously where there was this great race to get more and more power out of the engines, which was so hideously expensive, hundreds of millions of Euros, that manufacturers couldn’t afford to sell engines very cheaply to the teams.”