Skip to content

FIA President Max Mosley has insisted that introducing the concept of customer cars to Formula One racing is an obvious choice if smaller teams are to remain competitive with their much larger, manufacturer-backed rivals.

From next season there will be 12 teams on the grid - David Richard’s Prodrive organisation has the 12th entry - and expected 2008 rule changes will allow them to buy complete chassis from their competitors.

Speaking at the launch of the UN’s Global Road Safety Week, Mosley suggested that not only would the change make for more competitive racing, it was also essential for cutting costs, pointing out that running 12 teams, each with their own huge development budgets, staff and facilities, did not make economic sense.

"To me it's obvious you should have the customer cars,” he told news agency Reuters. “Whether you have four cars of a given make or two on the grid, it doesn't seem to matter. They will all look completely different anyway."

Despite Mosley’s enthusiasm for customer cars, their proposed adoption has drawn criticism from some quarters, with claims that they will dilute the technical purity of Formula One racing.

Indeed, the concept has even prompted controversy this season, following the Spyker's decision to start arbitration proceedings against Super Aguri and Toro Rosso over allegations that they are using Honda and Red Bull chassis respectively.