Formula One: Formula One spectators may get the chance to ride with Michael Schumacher after the governing body decided yesterday to allow radio contact between the pit lane and driver.

The FIA is to explore a standard radio system for the cars that would be "accessible to the public at a grand prix" in an extra initiative to reverse the sport's declining popularity.

It would enable the public to listen in, probably through headphones at their seats on the grand prix circuits. Such a system has been used to good effect on the Nascar saloon car circuit in America which attracts crowds of more than 125,000.

Allowing teams to continue with their pit-to-car radio communications was the one small concession granted by the FIA at an eight-hour meeting of the technical working group called to discuss last week's radical rule changes.

Michael Schumacher and the BMW motorsports director Gerhard Berger had argued strenuously that the radio links were a key safety factor because of the need to warn of hazards on the track ahead.

The Jordan team's business development director Ian Phillips reacted positively: "These changes will give Formula One a fresh 10-year lease of life. Without it, it was doomed because the cost spiral would eventually have jeopardised the future of most of the teams."

It was agreed that the ban on traction control and launch control would run from the British Grand Prix this July, the coming season's midway point. Computer telemetry links from car to pit will be banned from 2004 and it was decided that a spare car could only be used if a driver's designated race car was damaged beyond repair.

The FIA also pleased the engine manufacturers by announcing that a standard electronic control unit would not be imposed next season because it was confident the ban on electronic driver aids could be policed using new technology.