Ron wants me out, says Stoddart

Speaking at the official launch of his team's PS03 challenger in Melbourne's Federation Square today (Wednesday), the Australian responded to comments from Dennis that Minardi was less deserving than Jordan of help from the other teams.

"I think Ron's trying to get rid of me and he doesn't care if he kills Minardi along the way," said Stoddart. "All these comments that Minardi doesn't belong in Formula 1 - excuse me, Minardi are the fourth oldest team in Formula 1. Have people forgotten that? This is our 19th year."

Stoddart also claimed the current F1 regulations favour the bigger teams. He said: "It's a bit of a dirty poker game where the way the current regulations are the rich get richer and the poor go out of business. One would say, okay, tough. But it's not tough if you actually get to the point where the very sport you are in is under threat of having not enough cars to compete to fulfil its contractual obligations.

"I would not wish any team to fail. We've lost Prost, we've lost Arrows and now comments by people like Ron put me under pressure. And I don't think that's the way to take Formula 1 forward."

At the launch of Minardi's new car, it was also confirmed that the team had lost its title sponsorship deal with GoKL.