Mosley Sides with Minardi in Prost Money Dispute

As part of his letter of response, the head of Formula One's governing body accused the bosses of wealthy Williams and McLaren on Tuesday of trying to grab money at the expense of struggling Minardi.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley, in a letter rebutting their criticisms of his actions in introducing rule changes, dismissed the bosses' claims to have been 'proactive' in helping smaller teams with financial difficulties.

"Your main 'proactive' work in the past 12 months seems to have been to try to prevent at all costs (including taking Bernie Ecclestone to arbitration) Minardi receiving money which I and two leading counsel believe is clearly due to them," he told Frank Williams and Ron Dennis.

"This was money which would have gone to (Alain) Prost had he continued, never to either of you, yet you are apparently doing your utmost to grab it at Minardi's expense," said Mosley.

"Furthermore, Ron's public utterances on Minardi speak for themselves."

McLaren team principal Dennis said last week that Jordan should get more than Minardi if Formula One made a "fighting fund" available to help out smaller teams after both Prost and Arrows failed last year.

Minardi, regularly locked in a fight for funds and survival, spent much of last season chasing television money that they claimed as theirs after the failure of Prost.

The money was paid out to Australian born Minardi boss Paul Stoddart but four teams, including McLaren and Williams, threatened to take Formula One supremo Ecclestone to arbitration over the matter.