Mosley still in favour of single tyre supplier.

FIA president Max Mosley has revealed that he would be in favour of Formula One reverting to a single tyre supplier in the battle to combat speeds, but fears that taking a hasty decision could lead to the governing body facing legal action.

In the latest missive between the president and Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart, Mosley confessed that a control tyre was still a personal objective but, having had his fingers burned while trying to introduce a similar measure to top flight kart racing, he was reluctant to pursue the matter too hastily.

Responding to Stoddart's claims that, had the matter been voted on at the F1 Commission meeting of 29 June 2004, the single tyre supplier could have been appointed and in place for the 2005 season, Mosley insisted that that would have led to the FIA being left open to anti-competition allegations, and the threat of subsequent legal action.

"It would have been wrong, and possibly illegal, to have sought to eliminate one of our two tyre suppliers with less than the same clear (one) season's notice which we require of each of them," he wrote, "There was never any question of 2005 [being the season to introduce a single supplier]. Had we voted in May, or even June, we might have been able to go through the exercise before 31 December 2004, and bring in a rule for 1 January 2006, but subsequent experience, particularly examination of the single ECU question, makes me believe that our lawyers might have wanted more time, and further discussion and analysis, both inside the Technical Working Group and F1 Commission, and with the tyre suppliers."

Despite his reservations over the required timescale to introduce a single supplier rule, Mosley insisted that he remained in favour of ending the 'tyre war' as part of the desire to control escalating speeds in F1.

"I still believe that a single tyre supplier is desirable, and would undoubtedly solve many problems in Formula One," he continued, "but I think it is questionable whether the FIA should involve itself, particularly when the great majority of teams were not prepared to meet last month to discuss a possible rule. There is real risk that such a rule would involve the FIA in legal proceedings and some members of the FIA see no reason why, in the present circumstances [with Mosley claiming that the teams are unwilling to meet with the FIA to discuss the future of F1], the FIA should take this risk.

"[It would be] better to let the teams agree among themselves to use only one source of tyres if that is their wish, [then] they, rather than the FIA, would be at risk of legal proceedings. Unlike the FIA, the teams seem to have plenty of money and unlimited legal assistance."

The president's final comment appeared to be another dig at those teams that refused to meet with the governing body at the end of January to discuss timetabled cost-cutting proposals, as well as at Stoddart's latest letter, which Mosley reckoned was written in 'slightly pompous legalese', rather than the Australian's more usual brusque tones.

Mosley also pointed out that, contrary to Stoddart's claim, Ferrari was incapable of derailing proposals for a single supplier, but added that, again contrary to the view held by those team's opposed to the introduction of 2.4-litre engines in 2006, a control tyre would not be enough to curb speeds.

"An 80 per cent majority, followed by 18 votes out of 26 in the F1 Commission, is all that would have been needed for the proposal to go to the World Motor Sport Council," he advised, "Quite obviously, Ferrari, with its single vote (equal to only ten per cent of the TWG) could not have blocked this, even if it had wanted to.

"The truth is that a single control tyre, with no other changes, would not have been enough to contain car performance, if only because of the maximum speeds achievable with 1000bhp. The TWG, of course, has always known this. Unfortunately, over 1000bhp is simply too much for the circuits and the cars we currently have, or are likely to have in 2006 and 2007. This has nothing whatever to do with Ferrari which, I repeat, could not have blocked a single-tyre rule (or, indeed, any other proposal supported by 80 per cent of the TWG and 18 of 26 votes on the F1 Commission)."