Stoddart Threatens to Quit Unless Minardi Get TV Funds

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has reiterated that his team may not compete at the British Grand Prix if he loses his fight for a share of television money at a meeting of all 11 Formula One team bosses in London on Thursday.

Stoddart believes he is legally entitled to claim around $12 million freed up after the bankruptcy of the Prost team in February.

As revealed exclusively by Atlas F1 last weekend, Arrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw produced a document signed by five bosses that suggests that the money is shared out amongst all the teams - which could deny Minardi the funds needed to remain in Formula One.

"We will be at the next race, at the Nurburgring, come what may, but (after that) I might choose not to fund what would be inevitable losses if we did not get this money," Stoddart admitted.

Stoddart initially tried to gain support for his claim in Montreal over the weekend but admitted he "gave up" trying to win votes from his rival bosses when he heard of Walkinshaw's move.

"I did all that and basically found amongst my travels that Tom was circulating a document that was totally contrary to my document so at that point I just gave up," said Stoddart, who immediately ordered the team's solicitor to draft a letter of response.

"We had our solicitor in Montreal so we drafted a response to Tom's document," said Stoddart. "I distributed that to all the teams on Sunday morning except him, so they have all got documents for Thursday's meeting."

According to Stoddart, Walkinshaw's letter "ignored just about every fact" of the secret Concorde Agreement, which governs money matters in Formula One, and he admitted he was "gutted" to see some of his rival bosses had signed the document.

He claims to be fully supported in his plight by at least one of the sport's leading officials but would not reveal whether that was Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone or Max Mosley, the president of the sport's governing body, the FIA.

But Stoddart is now past caring whether he can turn the opinion of the team bosses around and although still hopeful of reaching an agreement on Thursday, he is ready to take Walkinshaw and anyone who signs the document to court to get the money.

"If we can sort it, fine, if we don't it is not going to be very nice, " said Stoddart. "But I don't care. I am not interested any more. Ours is a legal and right position and if people want to ignore that, then ignore it at their peril.

"I think it will be solved on Thursday, but I've stopped making predictions because when you think something is right both legally and morally it doesn't seem to carry a lot of weight.

"If it doesn't go my way I would have to make a decision whether I want to stay in the sport under a regime that allows what is happening to us to happen."