Former world champion Niki Lauda has hailed Formula One's rule changes for 2003 as just what the sport needs.

"I think what has been changed is a big step forward," the Austrian, dismissed as Jaguar team boss last November, told reporters at a news conference organised by Germany's RTL television on Tuesday.

Triple champion Lauda praised in particular the decision to ban refuelling between the new single-lap qualifying on Saturday and Sunday's race.

"I think altogether this is the best rule change I have ever seen in Formula One because it will make it more attractive," he said.

"We will not have the same boring kind of races we had in the past and I think this was the biggest problem to overcome and I think it was a perfect job."

Appearing alongside International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley and Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Lauda said the governing body had succeeded where team bosses had failed.

"In the past the teams were thinking about what needed to be changed but they never could find an agreement," he said.

"So finally Max took over in a very dramatic way and changed a lot of things around. There are more unknowns now -- how the grid will be coming together.

BLAST OFF

Lauda recognised that people were complaining at how late in the day the rule changes were decided, with less than two weeks now before the start of the season in Australia, and said he would have been unhappy too were he still a team principal.

"But if the teams cannot agree, somebody must take over," he added.

The Austrian, who once said grand prix cars were now so easy to drive that a monkey could do it, has long advocated the banning of electronic systems.

Traction control, which eliminates wheelspin and makes the cars more manageable in the wet, and launch control systems used to ensure a quick and clean blast-off at the start, will be banned from July's British Grand Prix.

"I was always complaining about all this computer help to the driver because in the end there's less effort for the driver to control the car if the computer does the job," said Lauda.

"Last weekend I was together with (Ferrari's world champion) Michael Schumacher and I discussed it with him. He basically says that 'If I am a good driver, I will be able to drive like a computer."

"From this point of view, I think it's back to where it should be, for the man to drive the car and not the computers."

Lauda, who tried out a Jaguar Formula One car himself last year, said that anyone could now handle a car's start with the current launch control.

"All you do is push a button. In the old days, if you screwed up the start at Monte Carlo where you have too much wheelspin you lost the race.

"So from the driver point of view it will be much more difficult, more exciting and you will see some differences in race results.

"I think this is what a race should be."