The European Commission signalled the end to its lengthy anti-trust investigation into motor racing yesterday after Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's ringmaster, agreed to loosen his grip on the sport.

After some three years of confrontation over the manner in which international motor racing was administered, and in particular the vexed issue of whether the Formula One world championship was anti-competitive, a compromise deal was reached which took the sting out of the commission's concerns over whether the FIA, the sport's world governing body, had the power to prevent competition by threatening to withdraw the licences of track owners, teams and drivers. The investigation followed a complaint by the German television group AETV in 1997 about access to the sport.

Although Ecclestone has nominally relinquished his role as FIA vice-president for promotional affairs, in reality there will be little change in grand prix racing's lavishly funded ecosystem.

Yet the FIA, which last year leased its commercial rights to Ecclestone's Formula One administration empire until next century, has satisfied the commission that it no longer has a commercial interest in Formula One's success.

"Over the past six months the FIA has changed its rules and commercial arrangements and will now take further measures to carry out its role as regulator for international motor sport without any commercial involvement," said the FIA president Max Mosley yesterday.

Meanwhile, British American Racing unveiled a replica Formula One car yesterday but promised real success on the track this year.

The team had to resort to the look-alike "facsimile" version of their new BAR003 after Canadian former world champion Jacques Villeneuve crashed the real one in testing in Spain last week.

Villeneuve has complained about the lack of speed of the new car but BAR's French driver Olivier Panis was fastest in testing in Barcelona on Thursday.