New rules 'benefit Ferrari'

Dennis and FIA president Max Mosley have rarely seen eye to eye

The new rules that are expected to come into force next year have been created to favour Ferrari, according to McLaren team boss Ron Dennis.

The fact that rules demanding longer-life engines and tyres will benefit Ferrari explains why the teams have not yet agreed the changes, Dennis said.

"The regulations proposed favour one team over another because of the circumstances they are in," he said.

Motorsport's governing body, the FIA, dismissed the claims as "ridiculous".

But Dennis said the rules had been "quite deliberately" set up to favour Ferrari.

The world champions have the most reliable engine in F1, while McLaren have to limit their engine mileage over a Grand Prix weekend to guard against failures.

The most ridiculous accusation is that we would want Ferrari to be more dominant FIA spokesman

At the same time, Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres are more durable in races than the Michelins used by McLaren and their other leading rivals.

Dennis said: "If one team (Ferrari) has an engine that currently does 1,500km and another (McLaren) has one that does 500km and suddenly you've got a rule that the engine has to do two races, then you have a situation where those who are already close to that level have got a clear advantage.

"Similarly, if you've got a tyre that is very durable and has less degradation over the distance of a Grand Prix and then suddenly you've got a regulation that says we are only going to use one set of tyres for a Grand Prix, then that team is immediately at an advantage.

"Putting aside who gets what, that's deliberate and the key ingredient is how to destabilise the teams and take their focus aware from trying to create commercial stability."

'Constructive'

An FIA spokesman said: "Of all the ridiculous accusations that could be made against the FIA perhaps the most ridiculous is that we would want Ferrari to be more dominant.

"Did any of the people making these accusations actually watch the race in Hungary?

"In reality the FIA's consultation with the teams on the new regulations has been very constructive.

"We understand that general agreement on the new regulations has already been reached. In that sense we feel that the consultation process has been very successful.

"It's to everyone's advantage to finalise the regulations sooner rather than later and we understand that most teams have already started working on designs for 2005 which meet the proposed regulations."

FIA reveals planned changes

The rules package, which also includes changes to limit the aerodynamic performance of the cars, has not been unanimously agreed by the team owners.

That means it is likely to be imposed by the FIA in a series of stages in the coming months.