[originaltext] Formula One is under fire again. The safety debate is ragin

Formula One is under fire again.
   The safety debate is raging a consequence of volunteer official Graham Beveridge’s death during the Australian Grand prix in Melbourne this month.
   It is a debate the sport is well used to: It began with Jackie Stewart in the late 1960s. It reappeared in 1994 with the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger on one terrible weekend at Imola.
   This time however, the focus has changed--Beveridge was not a driver, but a volunteer official. And the concern now is not how to protect the sports stars, but to ensure the safety of the thousands of people who line the track at each race.
   The grand prix authorities and teams have spent billions of dollars ever the past two decades trying to make drivers invincible to any accident, no matter what the speed. Today’s drivers are cocooned in a bulletproof shell, which, judging by the four heavy crashes in Melbourne, means they can survive even the worst - looking incident.
   However, according to some respected members of the grand prix stable, the sense of security that drivers now feel may be the very reason there were so many serious crashes in Australia. They increased the threat to marshals and spectators.
   And quicker speed can only make it increasingly dangerous for spectators and officials, particularly at the older circuits where more compromises are made on from where in the speedway they will watch.
   Max Mosley, president of the Federation International Automobile (FIA), has already admitted that, because of the newly rejoined "tyre war" between Bridgestone and Michelin, speeds have increased too much.
   Mosley has promised further actions to force speeds down, but now may be the moment for the FIA to tackle one of grand prix racing’s most controversial topics: engines. Since 1994, engine power has been allowed to edge upwards without any rule restrictions. In an effort to attract more major car manufacturers into the sport, the current rules permit- ting three-litre V10 cylinder engines have been guaranteed until 2007.
   There is, however, a growing feeling in that these 820-- horsepower engines should be replaced by high-revving 25 -litre V6 -cylinder milts, which would add more than four seconds a lap to current times. All agree that Mosley has a delicate balancing act to perform during the next few weeks. Should there be any more incidents in Malaysia or Brazil, the next two world championship rounds, the cries for change may grow louder.