The FIA have agreed to award the Formula One world drivers' championship to the driver with the most race wins from this season onwards.

The governing body's World Motor Sport Council has agreed to the proposal from Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management to award the championship to the driver with most race wins, although there is no provision to award medals.

If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will go to the driver with the most points, based on the current system.

The remainder of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system, with the constructors' championship unaffected.

The WMSC rejected an alternative option from the Formula One Teams' Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing first, second and third to 12, nine and seven points respectively.

The FIA have also agreed to introduce a voluntary budget cap from 2010 of £30million per two-car team as the sport seeks ways to further tighten its belt.

The aim is to make it easier for new teams to enter F1, as well as allow existing teams to participate on much reduced budgets should they so choose.

In essence, from next season teams will have a choice between the current freedom to spend, but be forced to adhere to the existing technical constraints, or enjoy a new degree of freedom to innovate technically, but with a severely restricted budget.

The £30million cap, which currently equates to around 33million euros or 42million US dollars, will cover all expenditure of any kind, including driver salaries.

Anything subsidised or supplied free will be deemed to have cost its full commercial value, with rigorous auditing procedures to be applied.

To enable those cars to compete with those from teams that will not be subject to cost constraints, the budget-capped cars will be allowed greater technical freedom.

The principal areas will be a more aerodynamically efficient, but standard, under body, movable wings and, most crucially, an engine not subject to a rev limit or development freeze.

Explaining the WMSC's thinking behind the decision, FIA president Max Mosley said: "It has been carefully costed.

"The cars will be much less refined in detail, because the teams will not be able to spend huge sums on minute advantages.

"But from the grandstand or on television they won't look or sound any less 'Formula One' than the current, ultra-expensive cars.

"They will also be more interesting to the technically-minded because of the special features which will allow them to compete against teams with much bigger budgets.

"And don't forget that £30million is still a huge amount of money in the real world."

Although a cap would appear difficult to police, Mosley added: "We went into all this very carefully some time ago.

"We involved forensic accountants from Deloitte and Touche as well as financial experts from the current teams.

"The vast majority of payments are traceable and any benefits in kind can be valued.

"There were a number of meetings, and it became clear we could do it. The problem was getting the current teams to agree a figure.

"Also, the majority wanted a lot of exclusions such as land and buildings, the team principal's salary and the drivers.

"We would also need the right to carry out very intrusive audits and impose severe penalties for overspend.

"However, these difficulties no longer arise because each team will now be able to choose whether or not to run under the cost cap."

Mosley insists a budget-capped car will be able to win a grand prix, potentially even the title.

"There is no reason why cost-capped teams could not win races," confirmed Mosley.

"The massive and highly organised unlimited-expenditure teams are perhaps likely to do a better job of going racing.

"They will have the most expensive race engineers and tacticians, not to mention the top-earning drivers.

"However, racing is, and should be, unpredictable."

Crucially, Mosley is hoping F1 will now expand between the current 10 teams, with provision currently in place for 12.

The figure could go beyond that providing certain criteria were met, as Mosley explained: "We are going to ask the WMSC to agree to increase the number of teams allowed to participate.

"That is provided the Safety Commission is satisfied that circuit safety has progressed to the point where this would pose no safety problem.

"Each entrant will also have to satisfy us that they have a source for an engine and transmission."

The WMSC have also lifted, in part, their ban on in-season testing, allowing teams the opportunity to conduct eight one-day aerodynamic tests on a FIA approved straight-line or constant radius sites between now and the final race of the season.

That will help Lewis Hamilton and McLaren who last week revealed they are struggling for speed ahead of the new season due to aerodynamic problems.