Stoddart Fears Plot to Force Him Out of F1

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has accused McLaren's Ron Dennis of trying to force him out of Formula One on the eve of the new season.

"I think Ron's trying to get rid of me and he doesn't care if he kills off Minardi along the way," he said at the formal launch of his team's 2003 car on Wednesday ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

The two principals, one presiding over a wealthy World-Championship winning company and the other the owner of the smallest and poorest of teams, are in open hostilities after negative comments from Dennis. The two are due to appear together at a potentially explosive official news conference at Albert Park on Friday.

Stoddart said that Dennis's remarks, in adding to the uncertainty surrounding his team, had caused him considerable difficulties with sponsors.

He also bridled at suggestions that Minardi, who have opted to take part in a new two-hour test session on the Fridays before races along with Renault, Jaguar and Jordan, were mere 'track cleaners'.

"All these comments that Minardi doesn't belong in Formula One - excuse me, Minardi are the fourth oldest team in Formula One," said Stoddart. "Have people forgotten that? This is our 19th year."

He countered the suggestion that, in saving Minardi from closure and entering Formula One as a team owner in 2001, he was playing a high-stakes poker game without enough chips.

"I had plenty of chips when I came into it but you may be right now because so many circumstances have changed, ones that none of us could ever have foreseen," said Stoddart.

Dirty Game

"It's also 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," he said.

"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."

The 2003 Championship starts with just 10 teams, the minimum before a clause is triggered that would force some to field an extra car each to keep 20 drivers on the grid, and organisers are seeking to rekindle television audiences after a year of one-sided Ferrari dominance.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has introduced major rule changes to cut costs and help smaller teams but Dennis and Frank Williams are taking the governing body to arbitration over the way in which the measures were imposed.

Stoddart had hoped a 'fighting fund', contributed to by the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, might help him through the season and ensure that no more teams followed Prost and Arrows into liquidation. However, that initiative has now stalled.

Stoddart said Minardi, who must pay Ford-owned Cosworth for their engines and Bridgestone for tyres, did still have enough money to get through the season but it would be tight.

"We've enough to compete and complete, provided we don't have any problems with any of our sponsors. We are on an absolute tight budget, there's no room for margin of error. I would not wish any team to fail," he said.

"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 One forward."