Q: A few years ago I asked you about people taking legal action against car companies and you just rejected it out of hand. It is starting now, we have got Belgium looking at legislation to have health warnings on cars and banning the use of speed as a means of selling cars. Now that is a long-term threat to the sport because if manufacturers are not going to be allowed to make fast cars they are not going to need the sport to promote them. What can the FIA do about that to stop these policies going through?

MM: First of all, I think that anybody who wants to put that idea through that you should have a health warning on cars has got a very uphill struggle. The more realistic thing is that the road car is going to be more and more regulated. The technology already exists to make sure nobody breaks the speed limit. The FIA's attitude to that is really two-fold. First of all, if we have totally enforced speed limits, just take that example, we need rational speed limits. And as we have the technology to enforce the speed limits we also have the technology to vary them according to circumstances, rather than to have them arbitrary and in many cases indefensible, which is what we have at the moment. But apart from that, as far as the sport is concerned, the more the car on the road is regulated, the greater the incentive to come into motor sport. You don't necessarily have to have in the future massive roll cages and all sorts of protection which you needed 20 years ago because the road cars are now much safer than in the past. So we see the future as much more grass roots motor sport, saying to young people 'if you want to go fast, the road is not the place to do it. The road is for getting from A to B, it is not for going fast or taking risks. If you want to go fast and take risks we can accommodate you, we've got rallies, we've got racing, and that is where you should do it. If you think you can drive fast, come along to a club race and see how you get on', because they will be quite surprised. Even club racing is very quick.

I knew that was coming. My accident happened at around 45mph so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Denise McCluggage (sp) had a column in AutoWeek some time ago about these types of "driver's aids", saying they were a "good thing".
Frankly, I was somewhat shocked... till she explained it will help keep the "non-drivers" out of the sports minded driver's way, so that the rest of us can go on enjoying ... driving!