New rules for F1

The FIA and Formula One Team representitives meet today to vote on the introduction of new rules for the 2006 Formula One season. The major issues will be the return of tyre changing and the removal of the current qualifying format in favor of a new, more exciting version.

Other less important issues that need to be discussed such as the removal of a third car on Fridays.

At the start of the 2005 season, tyre changing was removed and was a very unpopular move. It was designed to cut costs and raise excitement but in fact it did completely the opposite. The return of tyre changing is still set to face some opposition as teams are still uncertain of the way it will turn out.

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing "There are pros and cons to a return to tyre changing and it is intrinsically linked with qualifying so we will have to see what happens in that area first."

But the most important thing on the on today's agenda is the new qualifying system. The new proposed format would have two 15-minutes sessions where the five slowest drivers from each session are eliminated. Then the final session would decide the final grid order. This plan has met opposition as it is unclear on how fuel loads will be used between qualifying and the race. These problems will be resolved today.

Max Mosley, President of the FIA "From our point of view I don't see difficulties in the future, I think it is all going to end up quite peaceful. There is a lot of progress being made. At the moment I think there are even more proposals for qualifying than there are teams so I have no idea what is going to come out of that, I just hope it is not too complicated."