Mosley: We suspected something was up with BAR.

FIA president Max Mosley insists that the governing body was aware of a potential 'problem' with the latest BAR-Honda, but had to wait for an appropriate time and place to prove it.

Mosley told a packed press conference at the Spanish Grand Prix that a rumour had been doing the rounds that suggested the 007 did not confirm to the regulations, but had to wait until the team was in a position to be routinely checked before the extra fuel tank that landed it a two-race suspension could be exposed.

"We had good reason to believe there was something wrong with the BAR," he revealed, "There was a general rumour that this was going on. I personally heard about this in the winter from someone who doesn't work in Formula One, but works in top level motor racing in the United States That's how far the rumour had spread.

"I resolved to tell Charlie [Whiting] about it at an opportune moment, but I never got around to it because Charlie had picked the rumour up himself. And the reason I didn't tell him at Imola was that I thought, if it is true, they must know this rumour is going round and nobody would be so stupid to [continue using the system] at the first competitive race.

"They would wait to see if the FIA turned up and had a really good look, because that would alert you that they were on to it. But, if you had a successful race and nobody had a good look, then probably the FIA don't know about it. My intention was to talk to our people about it before the next race. I thought, after Imola, if nothing happens, they will relax, put the system back in and we'll catch them at Barcelona, but, in fact, unknown to me, our people were already on to it - and the rest is history."

Mosley was also asked whether there had been a 'whistleblower' involved in exposing the BAR fuel system, but he denied that the information had come from anywhere other than the grapevine.

"Fortunately, we were not tipped off - if we had been, we would have had to give somebody a million dollars," he insisted, referring to the 'reward' in place to catch cheats, "Without the million Euros fine [levied against BAR], that would have been painful."