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Toit allows Minardi to race the old car
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Minardi may not be permitted to compete in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after Ferrari boss Jean Todt refused to agree to a request by the team to compete in the opening three races in a 2004-model car.
Speaking exclusively to Atlas F1 at the Albert Park circuit, Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said: "As of now, Wednesday afternoon, the situation is that Minardi will not be competing in Sunday's race because (Jean) Todt has refused to agree to our request.
"I spoke to him at 3.00am, and he said he won't agree to it, stating that it is an FIA matter. But it's not, and he knows that. The FIA needs to satisfy themselves that cars are safe, and the nine teams need to agree that we can compete outside the technical regulations. They are totally separate issues with separate procedures."
A FIA spokesman agreed this was the situation.
"Two things are required: 1) all cars have to be scrutineered and passed for compliance by the FIA, and 2) all competitors need to agree to allow cars not complying with the technical regulations take the start. The sequence is unimportant subject to both points being complied with before the cars go out on the track," he said.
Minardi, whose engine supplier Cosworth was sold to a private consortium by Ford in November last year, recommitted themselves too late for Minardi to ready their 2005 car before the San Marino round in April according to Stoddart.
"We received notice that Ford was withdrawing from Formula One and putting its operations up for sale in September last year, and so we put off building our new car," explained Stoddart. "As a small team we can't afford the risk of investing money unless we are sure of our situation.
"Because of Cosworth and regulations which were signed off late, we cannot be ready before Imola. The lead time on our bellhousings alone is 16 weeks. That's four months."
Stoddart maintains that all teams bar Ferrari have agreed to Minardi's request.
"That is eight teams for and one against. I personally can't think of a bigger PR disaster than banning the underdog from what is effectively our home race," said Melbourne-born Stoddart. "He (Todt) told me he will not be in Melbourne until Friday morning, and that he is not interested in our problem.
"He won't delegate the matter either. The sad thing is that this is not a sporting matter, but a political one."
Stoddart is spokesman for a cost cutting initiative formulated by nine teams during the Brazilian Grand Prix in October last year. Ferrari are the odd team out. The Italian team are alone in having signed an extension of the Concorde Agreement, the document which governs the sport, and receives preferential financial terms from Formula One's commercial rights holder.
Stoddart has taken legal advice, but ruled out court action in Australia.
"Our advice indicates that we have a case, but it would mean disrupting the tenth anniversary of the Grand Prix I love above all others. I refuse to do that. But I am not ruling out later legal action."
Something like 'Ferrari, you should be ASHAMED'
I'll walk around holding one side for a while. ;)
Small minds
Refusing to sign to allow Minardi to race in Melbourne would be an act of monumental stupidity for Ferrari boss Jean Todt. The little Frenchman is no doubt enjoying his current position of power which means that he can cast out Minardi because the teams must agree unanimously to allow a team to run with year-old cars. All the others have agreed to let Minardi run with 2004 cars, but Todt will not. There are, no doubt, ways that Todt could justify such an action but it is very clear that the primary motivation behind such a move would be one of revenge, to make life difficult for Paul Stoddart, the man who has made Jean Todt's life difficult in recent months. Stoddart is not a fool and if he could have avoided putting himself in this position he would have done so but obviously that was not an option and so he finds himself exposed. Squashing Minardi might give Todt a little satisfaction but what good will it do the sport? Stoddart, for all his faults, is someone who cares about the sport sufficiently to be willing to fight and increasingly the other team bosses agree with him.
The rules were decided too late in the day and Minardi's engine supplier Cosworth had an uncertain future until the final week of November. Stoddart has a decent claim to force majeure. He says he did not have the money to waste to build interim cars and was waiting for a definitive set of rules. That is not asking too much. The rules which were imposed on the teams on the grounds of safety have proved to have done nothing at all to slow the cars down the three seconds that the FIA said they would. So Stoddart's 2004 cars are no closer to the field. It is all just a political game.
Perhaps if Ferrari continues to be difficult Max Mosley might win some Brownie Points in F1 circles by accepting that Minardi should be allowed to race, even if the cars are built for 2004 regulations. That would be better than the alternative which would be Minardi botching up cars to meet the 2005 rules and then sending out two young drivers with little F1 experience and telling them to drive cars which have no available data. It would be better than kicking off the World Championship of 2005 in the Counrt of Appeal.
Formula 1 does not need this kind of publicity. Minardi is a small, unsuccessful but highly-popular team, and to kick it out of the event would be pure stupidity on the part of those who have the power to allow Minardi to take part. Minardi is a threat to no-one on the race track but refusing to let the cars race is an act which will simply add to the political fighting in F1 at a time when anyone with brains can see it is necessary to start finding solutions, rather than digging trenches and getting ready for a war.
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If quig, petrol, and Matt could kindly note the underlined bits. :angel:
[Edited on 2/3/2005 by MinardiP1]
Sorry.
I'm afraid, as some of us have been warning, Stoddie has been set-up on a number of fronts here. Start screwing with Todt and look what happens. BTW I'm sure Minardi will 'race' on Sunday but what a difference from '01 and '02. An illegal car is simply wrong.
As for Aussie support for Minardi, I would hazard there are more TOIT fans in St Kilda than there are Minardi fans in all of Australia.
PS Junior mentioned TOIT having dignity. Not now, not ever, Junior. You can read back all the way to the 50s if you want!
He said - "I am Italian - there is always a way" and somehow I think it will happen but in what form I have no idea.
In the Netherlands we have a saying:
"There are many ways that lead to Rome"
That can't be coincidence.
It means there are many ways to solve a problem
Any techhead care to explain to me what exactly a diffuses is and why it's so difficult to produce a new one ??????
Before all the 'Stralians get over defensive again, let me reaffirm my admiration for the man and 95 per cent of what he's done over the past four years.
Running a 2004 car is plain wrong, regardless of what that wanker Todt says.
Minardi is better than this (and they will race).
Forza Minardi!
(Have a Carlton on me, Roo).
Here are some pics of diffusers etc from various year Minardi's:
LA FERRARI FA SCHIFO
LA FERRARI FA SCHIFO
LA FERRARI FA SCHIFO
WHERE'S MY SIGNATURE WHEN IT'S NEEDED
LA FERRARI MI HA ROTTO LE PALLE
JEAN TODT MI HAI ROTTO LE PALLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(FERRARI BROKE MY BALLS, JEAN TODT YOU BROKE MY BALLS, J.ALESI 1995)
I want to see Ferrari losing ignominiously this year.
Their arrogance and pretentiousness matches that of AC Milan and Juventus FC.
I want to see them on the ground.:spank::spank:
So it's like aero down the car, instead of on the car (like the TOIT Enzo).
But is it that difficult to change it ???
Come on BMW, McLaren, Renault, BAR... no matter who, but kick red asses!
Could be that Stoddart has hatched a plan with the other rebels to test the water with the Mosley&Todt company and intends using sensation and the media to push his cause.
An illegal car is wrong of course, but look, what can Stoddart do now? If Minardi don't race till Imola, they can become the Arrows of 2005 :(
[Edited on 2/3/2005 by Fox_Mulder]
You are so correct that F1 is NOT a sport anymore...it is Big Business and has been since the early 1980's...... one of the many things that has attracted so many of us to Minardi is their uniqueness...... Minardi has been THE example of honor & sportmanship in F1 over the past 20 years....... I hope we don't lose that...... I respect the on-track accomplishments of Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, and the others.....I just don't want to see Minardi sell its soul to become just like them.... My hope is that this ugly mess somehow works itself out...........