Mosley gives Bridgestone the thumbs up

Max Mosley believes the thrilling start to the Formula One season has fully justified the radical changes to the sport. There were fears at the start of the season that the switch to a single tyre formula as well as an engine freeze would have a negative impact on racing. But as sole tyre supplier, Bridgestone has dashed any of these doubts, with three different drivers winning the opening three races.

Now Mosley, president of motor sport’s world governing body, FIA, is hoping the title battle goes right to the wire. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen currently lead the championship on 22 points.

Mosley said: “What's interesting is that despite the hugely controversial engine freeze, nobody seems to notice. It's made no difference. The only difference is that is that it's saving the big manufacturers probably about a billion euros a year.”

"What I now hope is that the cars stay evenly balanced,” he added. “I think we have been very fortunate that McLaren and Ferrari seem evenly matched, with BMW close behind, and other people showing positive signs.

“And ending up after the first three races with three drivers on the same points, that is all quite good. I just hope no car-driver combination starts to pull out a huge advantage. I don't care who wins but I want it to be the last lap of the last race," said Mosley.

The FIA chief admitted that F1 still needed to increase overtaking and create more wheel-to-wheel racing with a return to ‘slick’ tyres one of the possibilities. “We’ve got four of the top teams working together to see if they can improve the situation,” he said.

“It remains to be seen whether they’ll succeed, but if they don’t we’ll probably do something really radical in 2010!”