Stoddart missing F1 badly

Former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has admitted that he is missing Formula One 'badly' despite only being out of the sport for a few months

The Australian made an appearance on the main stage at the Autosport International Show and was not afraid to confess that he was missing his involvement in Grand Prix racing more than he had expected.

"I am missing it badly actually, really badly," said Stoddart, who sold Minardi to Red Bull last year. "You don't realise how involved you get with F1 until suddenly the phone stops ringing and you are not involved any more."

Stoddart is focusing his efforts at the moment on his aviation businesses, which includes his new Oz Jet airline in Australia.

And although he has said he has a desire to return to Grands Prix as an onlooker this year, he believes it will be difficult for him.

"I would like to go to races, but in terms of job there are not many opportunities for an outspoken former F1 team principal.

"I am sure I would be welcomed in a lot of quarters, although maybe not in one place," he added in a reference to his disputes with the FIA in his time as team boss.

"When you have been a team principal it is a privileged position and it is a hard act to follow. If I didn't have a job to do I don't think I could enjoy being there. And as we have seen with Eddie Jordan, I think when you are out of the sport then you are really out of it."

Although he admitted that he is sad to have been forced to sell his old team, he has no regrets because he helped secure Minardi's future in F1.

"I think when you are trying to run the team on effectively 10 percent of the budget of some teams then it is quite hard. But Minardi has a future and Minardi did survive. It did make it while a lot of other teams didn't, so I am happy in that respect, but I am sad to see it go.

"We were getting into budgets that if you didn't have 100 million dollars in the back pocket then you shouldn't have even started, and that was unsustainable.

"There was dissent with the FIA and the way the rule-making process was going, and I saw no way of 12 teams getting TV money. Minardi would be dead without that money. So when Red Bull came I felt I had a duty to sell it."