Formula One rewrote its rule book yesterday after the most dramatic reshuffle in a decade saw all the high-technology driver aids consigned to the dustbin.

In a day-long meeting at a Heathrow airport hotel, the 10 team principals met with Max Mosley, the FIA president, and the Formula One commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, to agree a package of rules designed to change the face of grand prix racing and cut the sport's soaring costs.

After a season highlighted by racing as a procession featuring a dominant Ferrari team whose drivers were instructed not to compete against each other, all against a backdrop of dwindling television audiences, Ecclestone and Mosley effectively forced the teams to go back to basics.

Launch control, which allows cars to rocket off the grid, and traction control, the anti-wheelspin device that gives maximum grip to the driver, will be phased out as soon as possible, perhaps during the course of the 2003 season and certainly before the start of 2004.

In addition, radio communication between the pits and driver will no longer be allowed and computer telemetry allowing the engine to be adjusted by the team during a race will be banned. Gearboxes will return to being semi-automatic from fully automatic, and from 2005 engines will have to last two races while in 2006 engine life will be extended to six races.

"There will no longer be any radio communication between the pit wall and the drivers and only two cars per team will be permitted from the start of the season," Ecclestone said yesterday. "That means no spare cars will be deployed."