• Mosley denies need for FIA reform
• Honda Racing CEO proposes F1 budget limits
• Mexican WTCC round re-instated
• NASCAR team relocating after 60 years
• MTS appoints new CEO
• Milan launches Europe's first trial LEZ for cars

In an interview with the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Max Mosley, the president of the Paris, France based FIA, rejected a call from the former world Formula One drivers champion Jackie Stewart for changes to the way in which the organisation governs international motorsport and for Mosley to step down.

Mosley told the Guardian, "Dear old Jackie. He knows nothing about sports governance. Because he never stops talking, he doesn't know much about anything, actually. He just talks.

"So when people like that say it, you think, 'I just can't.' It's very childish, I suppose. The real moment to go is when you lose interest in your ideas. As far as I go, the only thing that keeps me doing it is new ideas and new technologies and steering the thing in a sensible direction. That's the motivator."

Nick Fry, the CEO of the Brackley, UK based Honda Racing Formula One team has proposed limiting the budgets of teams as a means of controlling costs in F1.

Speaking to the website autosport.com Fry explained that he had discussed his proposal with Honda Racing’s new technical director Ross Brawn. Fry said, "Ross and I both think that an overall budget cap is something that should be seriously investigated. What we see at the moment, if you look at the accounts of any of the UK F1 teams, is that the costs keep going up.

"So far what we have been successfully doing is moving money from one area of the team to another. Money is certainly moved from engines to aerodynamics, because that is the next best area of performance advantage.

"We support a lot of the proposals on the aero restrictions, but the fear is that that money will merely be diverted elsewhere. It will go to driver salaries or engineer salaries, or some other part of the car, but will not necessarily reduce the total bill that a team has to pay.

"So rather than chasing our tails, we think we should be considering an overall budget cap. Although it will be difficult to monitor, we think it can be achieved."

The FIA has revised the calendar for its 2008 Touring Car World Championship and re-instated the Mexican circuit at Puebla.

The Puebla circuit hosted WTCC rounds in 2005 and 2006 but both were marred by organizational problems and the event was dropped for 2007.

The 2008 WTCC round is scheduled to take place on April 5-6.

The Petty Enterprises NASCAR team, the orgins of which date back to the very beginnings of US stock car racing in the late 1940s, is relocating to new premises closer to the epicentre of the NASCAR racing community in North Carolina.

If all goes to plan by mid January Petty Enterprises will have completed the 74 mile move from it’s old headquarters in Level Cross, NC to raceshop facilities previously occupied by the Robert Yates Racing organisation in Mooresville.

Speaking about the move team figurehead and multiple NASCAR champion Richard Petty said, "The hard part was making the decision. It's easy after that. The deal is you've been somewhere for 60 years. Born in the house right up here, and never went nowhere.

"Then to be able to take the whole racing complex, as far as all the equipment and stuff, and move to another location -- even if it was just down the road, it would be just as hard to take.

"So like I've told everybody, 'You're moving our body, but you ain't moving our heart.' You know what I mean? Your heart is always going to be here because this is home."

The US test equipment manufacturer MTS Systems in Eden Prarie, Minnesota has appointed Laura Hamilton as its new chief executive officer who will succeed Sidney W. Emery, Jr at the company’s annual meeting on January 15.

MTS supplies a number of motorsport organizations, including Formula One teams, with various systems such as transmission dynamometers and rolling road floor systems for wind tunnels.

An "EcoPass" scheme has just been launched in Milan, beginning a one-year trial scheme to charge cars to enter the city according to emissions-related criteria, a month ahead of London’s LEZ scheme for commercial vehicles and buses. Milan has frequently suffered atmospheric pollution near or over the EU’s limits.

The fee to drive into the city, ranging from €2 to €10 during weekday daytime hours, will be based on five engine categories. Electric and alternative fuel vehicles, as well as ambulances, motorcycles, buses, taxis and vehicles delivering perishable goods, will be exempt. Cameras will monitor vehicles to ensure they have paid, or to levy fines of €70 or more. Estimated revenue of €24 million this year is being set aside for low-emissions municipal vehicle acquisition and new cycle paths.

(Planet Ark, 2nd January)