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Stoddart's Equilibrium

After a couple of years of bitter political battles and constant survival threats for his Minardi team, Paul Stoddart seems to have calmed down in the past few weeks and, more importantly, seems to have found stability for his team. For the first time in years, he talks about the next season with confidence of not only being on the grid, but also challenging for a higher-than-normal place in the Championship. And for the first time this year, he sees a bright future for F1. Adam Cooper sat down for a chat with the optimistic Australian

Adam Cooper Aug 10, 2005, 12:41 PM

Paul Stoddart has been so heavily involved in Formula One politics in the last couple of years that it's easy to forget the fact that he does actually run a team when he has the time. And having celebrated their twentieth anniversary earlier in the season, Minardi are in a pretty healthy situation right now.

With many of their rivals closing their doors over the last decade, Minardi have consistently been stranded at the back of the grid, something that has inevitably been exacerbated by the necessity to use old and outdated equipment. That's changed since the new package was unveiled at Imola, including a Cosworth engine that puts the team pretty much on a par with Red Bull.