Yu Zhifei, ex-manager of the Shanghai International Circuit, has been jailed for four years after being convicted of embezzling more than 1m yuan (£69,500; $137,500) during the late 1990s, when he was head of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club.

Yu helped to develop Shanghai’s race circuit and helped to organise the country’s first Grand Prix in September 2004.

F1 drivers have opened talks with the FIA over fears that the loss of traction control will make wet weather races more dangerous.

Honda Racing’s Jenson Button told Autosport: “The only worry I have about driving without traction control is racing in wet conditions. It’s going to be very dangerous. We couldn’t have raced in Fuji (last year) without traction control – there would have been people spinning on the straight.”

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa added: “In terms of safety, this is a big step backwards. For sure, we will have more accidents and racing in wet conditions will be very dangerous.

“I’ve spoken with Michael Schumacher and several other drivers and they’ve told me it will be more dangerous driving a car without TC now than it was in the past. Another race like Fuji would be very dangerous.”

Max Mosley has, as usual, dismissed drivers’ fears.

“Driving in the wet is quite dangerous – with or without traction control,” he told Autosport. “It’s dangerous in the sense that you’re likely to go off but you’re less likely to hurt yourself because the speeds will be lower. That was always the theory of the grooved tyre because you reduced the grip and the severity of the accident.

“Imagine, in the most extreme circumstances, holding the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on packed snow – nobody would get hurt because nobody would ever get up to enough speed to do any damage!”

Interesting, Max - particularly since this morning I witnessed someone managing to break their arm in a 20-mph crash in light snow in a road car…