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Dennis: Jordan More Deserving than Minardi

Jordan deserve more than Minardi if Formula One makes funds available to help out smaller teams, McLaren boss Ron Dennis said today.

Jordan deserve more than Minardi if Formula One makes funds available to help out smaller teams, McLaren boss Ron Dennis said today.

"I feel strongly that what help is given should not be equal to those two teams as I don't see them as equal in Grand Prix racing," he told reporters.

Dennis said there were some outstanding issues to be resolved before any financial help could be given but made clear that he had less sympathy for Minardi, who are again struggling to cover costs.

"Jordan have a long established history of competing in Grand Prix racing, led by a colourful and aggressive individual whose skills of survival are finely honed," he said. "While he has been known to have a degree of vocal complaint, this pales in comparison to that of (Minardi boss) Paul Stoddart."

Of the 10 teams remaining, Jordan, who entered Formula One in 1991, and Minardi, whose first race was in 1985, have been portrayed as the teams most in danger of following Prost and Arrows into oblivion.

However Irish entrepreneur Eddie Jordan has insisted that his team, race winners in 1998 and 1999, are sound and cannot be compared with Minardi, who have never won a race in 287 starts.

Fighting Fund

Stoddart, an Australian who rescued Minardi from imminent failure in 2001, is outspoken about his team's difficulties and has had run-ins with Dennis in the past.

At last season's Japanese Grand Prix, he accused Dennis and three other team bosses of trying to force his team out of business when they announced that they would go to arbitration to try to recover money paid to Minardi.

The threat of that action has since been dropped.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley said last week that two teams would have to run a third car to maintain numbers on the grid this season if another team fell by the wayside.

He pointed out that selection would be by ballot and it might not be those teams that could afford the extra car that would be asked to provide it.

Plans to set up a "fighting fund" to help the independent teams have stalled and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has now suggested levying a "television tax" on big teams such as McLaren or Williams.

Team principal Frank Williams said there was continuing debate about the redistribution of television money that would have gone to Arrows.

"There is a will to keep those teams in business. We do recognise that we need to keep 10 teams if at all possible," he said in a conference call after Williams and McLaren announced they were taking the FIA to arbitration over rule changes for the new season starting on March 9 in Australia.

Both Williams and Dennis, in an open letter to FIA president Max Mosley, said Formula One's financial problems were relatively short-term in nature.

"Your recent statements have given the impression that Formula One is in crisis," they said. "However it remains financially a very successful sport generating more than enough profits to sustain all of the teams involved in the series."

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