Minardi Melbourne or Bust?

[Armco Bender]

Money problems are threating Minardis participation at Melbourne after Cosworth have said show us your money before you get any engines according to F1 Livehttp://f1.racing-live.com/en/ .After the Arrows debacle you cant blame Cosworth,they cant supply motors for charity.With there tyre supplier also wanting $$$$ will Minardi make the grid in a few weeks at Melbourne or is Stoddarts wallet finally empty?.

[GTV27]

Do two other teams have to field a 3rd car each if Minardi croak?

Are they selected on a rotating basis?

An occansional GP for test drivers and "wildcards" could be fun even if Minardi manage to struggle on past this crisis to the next ("Shock, Horror: Tea lady refues to serve Stoddart due to slow payment on milk money")

[RWC]

The teams wallet might empty but stoddarts won't.
Remember he is a filthy rich man!!

I bet he would let the team fold before putting too much of his own money in though

At a guess i'd say they have no probs with starting the year-i just wonder if they'll spend the money knowing they just may not get past half season or whatever?

[GTRMagic]

SO is Cosworth supplying engines for the rumoured 4 cars showing up for each of the Friday sessions for Minardi?

Or will the 4 cars include 2x 2002 spec with EAL engines in them?

[steve nielsen]

the dutch media have said that the engines for the 1st 4 races have been payed for already.

[GTRMagic]

For how many cars though?? Two plus a spare I would imagine?

[Lee Janotta]

Hmm... Have they even designed a new car for this season? They might be hard-pressed to even make 107% this year (which, aside from Yoong's complete lack of talent, wasn't really a problem last year).

[Super Tourer]

Another report on Minardi & engines.

www.pitpass.com/news2/news.cfm?newsid=4864

[chrisgr31]

I thought I read somewhere that the Concorde Agreement states that the teams have signed up to field 20 cars, however there is no procedure for determining which team will field 3 cars in the event that there are less than 10 teams. With 16 races its obvious that they can't take turns as that will mean that 7 teams will have to field 3 cars twice, whilst 2 will only have to field 3 cars once.

The other question is what happens about the points. If Ferrari field 3 cars and they finish 1,2 and 3 do all three cars qualify for the points? If thats the case they could field 3 cars for the first half a dozen races and the championship would be over.

The whole idea of the big teams supporting the smaller teams was that it would remove these problems. If Minardi are short of £3million it only needs the top 6 teams to stump up £500,000 which is small change anyway!

I think Minardi will see out the season, even if "Sponsored by Bernie" has to appear on the sides of the car!

[NiceGuyEddie]

Originally posted by chrisgr31

The whole idea of the big teams supporting the smaller teams was that it would remove these problems. If Minardi are short of £3million it only needs the top 6 teams to stump up £500,000 which is small change anyway!

I think Minardi will see out the season, even if "Sponsored by Bernie" has to appear on the sides of the car!

You are talking about corporate charity. Well, hows that for a paradox? Besides, you are talking about 1 million dollars. That amount of money is a lot for every team. Especially when you are expected to give it away without gaining any benefit.

I understand it would present Minardi with a sollution, but it simply isn´t the way to go.

Its up to Minardi to come up with a budget that enables them to compete in the 2003 Formula 1 World Championship. If they fail, there´s no point in entering. If that leads us to a grid of less than 10 teams, then Formula 1 has outgrown itself financially and it should go bust interely.

Once teams start sponsoring eachother, of Formula 1 as en entity starts sponsoring its competitors, than the conflict of interests would rise out of control. Its an artificial way of making it all happen, and that simply doesn´t work. Not in the long run anyway.

[Super Tourer]

It doesn't look good. Bearing in mind PS coughed and spluttered his way through last year, claiming financial crisis at every turn and this was with free engines, how will they pay for engines this year?

Jos' and Justin's money doesn't seem that significant, where is the rest coming from?

No doubt Bernie will keep them in the series somehow, as he realises F1 cannot afford a season like last year, but it has to question Minardi's ability to survive despite cost cutting regulations and increased TV money.

By the way, I see the Asiatech engines were sold off at auction, they only made $7,500 each......

[Mr V]

Hasn't Bernie just bailed Minardi and Jaguar out? I don't think he'd do that knowing that Minardi might not possibly be able to pay for it's engines.

[Red]

Mr Stoddard bought himself a toy and was seen as a hero. After a little while he decided that the toy is expensive and he declared that the team should fund itself as a normal business. Preferrably should also bring some money in return. Anyway, if the big guys should start to gather half mil each, what's to stop Stoddard to claim free engines next year too? And free tyres? And free everything? I think I prefer Bernie, or even one of the big teams to buy Minardi from him, invest a decent amount of money in it and make it competitive. Or at least drag it out from the dangerous 'near 107%' zone.

[Don K]

Originally posted by steve nielsen
the dutch media have said that the engines for the 1st 4 races have been payed for already.

Other dutch media have said that only the engines for the 1st race have been paid for, and money is available for the next 3 races. (That was after the anouncement of Halfords as new sponsor, AFAIK).

Maybe this means that some sponsor has payed Minardi enough money for Cosworth engines for 4 races, and Minardi hasn't payed Cosworth yet?

[steve_r]

Every year many people think that Minardi will struggle to get within the 107% limit. Every year Minardi qualify within the 107%, with the only exception being when they have hopeless rentadrivers (not this year!).

[chrisgr31]

Originally posted by NiceGuyEddie
I understand it would present Minardi with a sollution, but it simply isn´t the way to go.

Its up to Minardi to come up with a budget that enables them to compete in the 2003 Formula 1 World Championship. If they fail, there´s no point in entering. If that leads us to a grid of less than 10 teams, then Formula 1 has outgrown itself financially and it should go bust interely.

Once teams start sponsoring eachother, of Formula 1 as en entity starts sponsoring its competitors, than the conflict of interests would rise out of control. Its an artificial way of making it all happen, and that simply doesn´t work. Not in the long run anyway.

In the long run a renegotiation of the Concorde Agreement is the solution with a different distribution of the money. Perhaps a scheme whereby each team who appeared at every race the season before got £x million with additional money on top for every point. That would ensure that the best teams got the most money but at the same time those without the manufacturer backing also got enough money to compete the following year.

Minardi is not a lame duck as other teams who have flded are. They have kept going on a shoestring for years whilst usually quallifying within the 107% rule, and occasionally lucking in to the points. They have also been frugal with their money.

The constant problem at the moment is that the big manufacturers have the money to throw at their teams and therefore they have the best if everything, therefore are better, get more TV exposure leading to more sponsorship etc.

Bernis alledged TV Tax idea has merit, after all uts relatively cheap advertising for those companies appearing on the car.

The idea behind the top teams giving limited funding to the small teams is intended to be a stop-gap measure until the full effect of the new rules cut in, particularly with regard to engines and the associated costs.

[Red]

Originally posted by chrisgr31
In the long run a renegotiation of the Concorde Agreement is the solution with a different distribution of the money. Perhaps a scheme whereby each team who appeared at every race the season before got £x million with additional money on top for every point.

Already done. With small amendments: the teams HAVE to compete in each of the previous year's events, and the additional money are given according to the WCC final standings. But for 'team who appeared at every race', Ferrari and Minardi do get precisely same amount of cash.

[Inigo Montoya]

According to this morning's Gazzetta: http://www.gazzetta.it/statics/smoto...930931830.html

Minardi has money only for the first 4 GP's because Ford is asking for payment...

[Red]

As much as I love Minardi, but I find Purnell's statement pretty spot-on: "It is traditional to pay for things". Mr Stoddard I believe that it would be a good time to use your check-book and your pen.

[steve nielsen]

well, sponsors usualy don't pay the full sponsorship amount before the season starts, so Minardi will probably have enough for this season's engines, but not the full amount at once: the deal was that they pay race by race and Cosworth can't go changing the rules months after the deal was signed.

[avsfan733]

its not so much a question of can they but will they
it seems to me like cosworth is trying to cover their arse at every turn after last year's hijinks. From the rhetoricthough it sounds more like someone is trying hoodwink minardi much like Bridgestone did

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally posted by Red
As much as I love Minardi, but I find Purnell's statement pretty spot-on: "It is traditional to pay for things". Mr Stoddard I believe that it would be a good time to use your check-book and your pen.

Your Italian reading skills are getting pretty good. To practise, you must read one Gazzetta article per day! If you are going to be a real Tifoso, you have to be able to speak the language

[golem]

Ah, Stoddy's not made of money. He's keeping his aviation spares business but he's selling the airline because of post sept 11 declines that forced out other smaller companies.

It comes back to the same problem. Corporations don't want to support backmarkers because they use it for advertising, while it's being used as entertainment. When a car gets poor coverage such that Minardi's get, it's fair for them to not want to invest.

But as we see with car manufacturers, they actually have a vested interest in development. More companies need to be enticed to use F1 as a development interest. But it's no easy task achieving that.

The ONLY way I can see Formula 1 progressing past this is by some means of managed sponsorship by the FIA. It charges set rates for set space, for a set period of time. X per race, Y per year, etc. They stay on the same car for the duration of their contract, and the more they pay the better their chances of getting a better ranked car to be their billboard for the year. Then split the money to all the teams. The only companies allowed to choose a car are ones with the 'development intersests' like sachs, magneti marelli, Oz Racing etc that supplies parts to a particular manufacturer. They pay baseline. The development parts have to appear on the car not as field equipment.

Money is distributed evenly for the first 30% of total revenue of advertising and then the next 30% is done by points.

Anyone team who has an unregistered sponsor appear on their overalls, truck, race cars, gets fined and taken out the back and kicked in the nuts one and all. Drivers overalls could be exempt or have some seperate similar ruling or just kept entirely seperate because let's face it, you don't see the overalls all too much on the track.

You think some kind of implementation like this could be workable? I do. It's in the best interests of the sport and companies can also in return be allowed to use the logo: Official Sponsor/Partner of Formula 1 much in the way Olympic Games are used.

PS Edit: Umm, hang on. This makes too much sense. All teams get paid A certain baseline of all revenue because they are in fact the thing that keeps the whole show going and racing in F1 if you're not one of the fat and fanciful 3 is a bloody HUGE risk...

[Red]

Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
going to be a real Tifoso

Io!!! Non e vero tifoso!!!

[GTV27]

Originally posted by golem

Anyone team who has an unregistered sponsor appear on their overalls, truck, race cars, gets fined and taken out the back and kicked in the nuts one and all.

Now there's an idea I can support...but only if its televised

hehehehehe

Allen: Oh, Schumi's taken a savage blow to the goolies.

Brundle: Yes James, that's going to seriously affect his performance under braking. Strangley though, Ralf's taken a similar hit, but seems completely unaffected...