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Max: Point system a concern

London - FIA president Max Mosley has admitted he had concerns about FIA's plans for a new scoring system in 2009, which motorsport's ruling body agreed on Friday to put off until 2010 following objections from Formula One teams and drivers.

Under the new system agreed earlier this week by FIA's World Motorsport Council, the championship would have gone to the driver with the most race wins instead of highest point total.

But that plan has now been shelved just over a week ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 29.

"Bernie (Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights holder) told me that he talked to all the teams and everybody was happy," Mosley said in an interview on Saturday with The Daily Telegraph.

"I was led to believe they all agreed. The World Council was under the impression that they had all agreed."

However, in reaching its initial decision to go with race wins, FIA rejected a proposal by the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) for a new points-scoring system whereby the points for a race win would rise from 10 to 12, with nine points for second and seven for third.

Positions four to eight would have continued to score in the current 5-4-3-2-1 manner.

While FIA argued that the new scoring system would make racing more exciting by encouraging drivers to chase wins, the F1 teams immediately protested claiming FIA was breaking its own rules.

Under Article 199 of the International Sporting Code, FIA cannot make late changes to regulations without unanimous approval of the teams.

"It is too late for FIA to impose a change for the 2009 season that has not obtained the unanimous agreement of all the competitors properly entered into the 2009 Formula 1 Championship," said FOTA in a statement.

Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug, meanwhile, said FOTA's stance was made in the best interests of the sport.

"It's not about power for FOTA, which represents all the teams in Formula One, it's about providing the best product for the Formula One public around the world," Haug said on Saturday.

"If a driver wins four races and then fails to finish 13 times, he could still theoretically beat someone who finished second 17 times," he explained.

"You can't have a situation where we have a world champion who is 96 points behind someone else."

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