Mosley: the technology in F1 has got out of balance

Former FIA President Max Mosley has agreed with Bernie Ecclestone that Formula One needs to rethink its entire approach to technology rules and regulations.

Mosley was appearing in an English-language interview for German broadcaster ZDF alongside Ecclestone at the weekend.

"It is supposed to be a double competition: men and machines," insisted Mosely, who stood down at the end of his term in 2009 and was replaced by the current incumbent, former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt.

"If the engineering competition starts to take over from the human competition, Formula One in my opinion loses an essential element," he continued.

"The fundamental thing is that a lot of the technology is so complex that nobody understands it.

"You can look on the Internet and see a picture of a modern Formula One steering wheel with all the buttons and so on [but] I could not tell you what most of those buttons were for.

"I think there is a big argument for a back to basics [push], where the driver has a steering wheel and maybe even a gear lever, and brakes and an accelerator, and a very powerful engine - and he has to get on with it."

Although the sport has recently started to re-introduce a ban on driver aids - especially so-called launch control systems that help the cars get off the starting line at the start of a race - Mosley feels that much more could and should be done in that direction.

"I think you will already find there is a rule we brought in in 1994, it is very simple and says driver aids are prohibited," Mosely pointed out. "The teams agreed to that at the time because they said you can never define what a driver aid is.

"They forgot that, if you are the regulator, a driver aid is whatever you say it is - so you have the possibility of eliminating all these outside helps from the engineers, radio and computer control, by enforcing rigorously that rule.

"But you cannot do that without upsetting people," he conceded.

Mosley went on to criticise the way that engine manufacturers now have a grip on competition in Formula One, with a lack of a supply of competitive seemingly on the verge of driving Red Bull and its sister team Toro Rosso out of Formula One entirely.

"The difficulty is that you have to have an independent engine supplier who can do [supply engines] on a commercial basis.

"The great strength of Formula 1 from the late '60s until quite recently was that we had Cosworth, Mecachrome and other people making engines so we weren't in the hands of the manufacturers," he pointed out.

"It was essential if you were doing that to do the engine in a way that an independent engine supplier like Cosworth could do at economic price,

"If I'd been doing the detailed regulations, apart from the principle, I'd have gone to Cosworth and said, 'Can you draft some regulations for us to look at where you could follow this principle but produce the engine for sensible amount of money?'"

Mosley's comments was enthusiastically endorsed by Ecclestone.

"When we got rid of the V8s, whatever you spent you couldn't get more power - that was it. People had exhausted all the possibilities," said the commercial rights holder.

"With the new engine, I suppose, the people who have spent the most money can get a big advantage because if they make mistakes they can make all the changes necessary."

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