13 September 2002 13:57
Mot: Minardi reborn
MELBOURNE, Sept 13 AAP - Six months after it almost collapsed, Australian entrepreneur Paul Stoddart believes he now
has his Minardi Formula One team headed in the right direction for 2003. A month after he secured sponsorship from the
world's biggest gas company, Russia's Gazprom, Stoddart is set to renew his team's Malaysian financial
support. It seems that deal will not be reliant retaining Malaysian driver Alex Yoong. Stoddart knows he is almost
certain to lose impressive Australian rookie Mark Webber to a bigger team, most probably Jaguar, but Minardi is poised
gain Ford's Cosworth engines. Stoddart would have preferred Ferrari engines but they are too expensive.
Minardi's engines this year have been supplied by Asiatech - based on the old Peugeot design - but the company
appears to be taking a season away from F1 racing next year to start its own team. Saudi Arabian prince Khaled
Al-Waleed, son of one of the world's richest men, was interested in buying Minardi as it teetered on the brink of
collapse earlier this year. However, Stoddart has made it clear his preference was to bring in investors, rather than
new owners, and to remain at the helm. When he rescued Minardi on the eve of the 2001 season he said he had a five-year
plan to make it competitive and he reiterated that was not prepared to give up in less than two seasons. "Minardi
will survive," Stoddart said. "The past few months have been dominated by lawyers and politics - it was a
massive distraction for me. "We were wounded quite badly, but now we're getting back to normality.
"Really, all I want to do is run a racing team. "Thankfully for the team we have performed well, given the
circumstances and that shows that it hasn't distracted us too much." AAP rg/gjw
[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]] |
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