Grand Prix cars under threat

Press, 6 September 1982, Page 25

Grand Prix cars under threat

NZPA Paris ’ The Safety Commission of the International Auto Sports Federation (F.1.5.A.) has threatened to ban Grand Prix racing world wide next year if the cars are not slowed down, it was learned at the week-end. F.I.S.A.’s circuit safety inspector, Mr Derek Ongaro, confirmed the committee’s position in a telephone interview from London. Its unpublished warning to the F.I.S.A. secretariat, after a meeting in July, was first aired last week in the magazine Grand Prix International. No senior F.I.S.A. officials were available at the weekend for comment on what action was being taken on the warning. There has been no high-level F.I.S.A. meeting since the warning was issued and the next executive committee meeting is on October 11. Supported by British Pro-

fessor Sidney Watkins, the official Grand Prix doctor and head of the FIS A. medical commission, the safety group said current Grand Prix cars ’have outstripped the safety margins of many circuits and would soon engulf others.” The commission said it “would not issue further formula one licences to circuits.” World championship Grand Prix cannot be held without a safety licence, which also is necessary for insurance. The F.I.S.A. executive commission called for increaseo "Safety at a meeting in Casablanca, Morocco, earlier this vear.

The racing teams have been unable to agree on measures which would reduce speeds without penalising individual teams. New sets of proposals were circulating during the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon, France, last week-end.