How does it effect Minardi. (merged)

[Don K]

Originally Posted by alfasud

In other words... what he seems to object to most strongly, is having a real points scoring race against Jordan... possibly motivated by the travel money associated with the points?

No.

What he objects to,m is having a *single* points scoring race decingin on which of the two teams ends higher in the WDC.

Until now, it has been a matter of 18 races in which both teams might sometimes beat the other team - and the team who ended up having the best race result would beat the opponent (assuming neither team would score a point.

Now, we have a situation in which one team has *4* points more than the other team.

There might be some race in which one of the teams scores 1 or 2 points.
But there is no way either of these teams could close a 4 points gap.

So for those 2 teams, the championship is essentially over (unless BAR fails to score 12 points).

[Sheila M]

Originally Posted by Don K

Part of the information he gives us might or might not be coloured.


But I absolutely believe he is telling the thruth about:
- Ferrari not being invited nor being present at the first meeting
- Ecclestone being present at all meetings mentioned
- The Ferrari drivers being present at the meeting with all drivers
- Jean Toth not being present at those meetings


Which gives us *a lot of* new information!

I've stated elsewhere about my "run in" with Paul, but the last time I worked alongside him was at a "Thunder in the Park" meeting at Donington Park a couple of years back. Whether he remembered I'd called him something unrepeatable at a previous encounter I have no idea. But he bent over backwards (as did the rest of the team) to make my job a little easier and I formed the impression that he was a very genuine man who cared passionately and deeply about the sport he was involved in.

I have no reason to believe that he was not telling the truth in his statement - he's an Australian and believes in forthright speech, as has been evidenced by the Dutch interview I thoroughly enjoyed listening to!

(As an aside, he was pretty useful behind the wheel in his racing days too!)

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by alfasud

Stoddard's motives are quite clear. He wanted to avoid a points scoring race against Jordan.

umm, can you explain that one to me? seems like any points would be good points for minardi.

[supermagnet]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

umm, can you explain that one to me? seems like any points would be good points for minardi.

If Jordan and Minardi both have zero points then Minardi still has an outside chance at beating Jordan in the championship if they luck into a point. But now they are 4 points back which means they need a lot more than a lucky point.

[Adam43]

I am not saying that it is Stoddart's motives, but the reasoning behind the potential motive is valid.

The reasoning behind that is that it isn't the points that are the important thing come season end, but the relative position come the end of the season. It was almost certain that Jordan would score more points and almost certainly four more points. Especially as Jordan could afford to run the cars at a less stressful pace. These four points is relatively a lot for teams at the bottom of the constructors table.

In a normal race it is more likely that Jordan would out-score Minardi. However the most likely situation is that neither score. There is a chance that due to luck, over a season, it might be Minardi that luck into the result.

Basically it reduces the chance of Minardi beating Jordan in the constructors championship.

[mac]

Originally Posted by alfasud

No he is not a racer...... he is in fact an anti-racer and to me he has lost all credibility.

He is as passionate about racing as anyone in F1. He got into this F1 stuff because he loved racing cars, bought a heap of them and decided to set up a F3000 race team, before bailing out Minardi in 2001.

[thejester]

In light of the FIA bringing charges against the M teams for withdrawing - this raises a point for Minardi. If they and Jordan had withdrawn also, then their withdrawl could, quite rightly, be considered a protest. Whereas the M teams can argue that they withdrew on safety issues. I think Minardi's racing has been good for the M teams on that particular issue.

Also, according to PS he was only out there because Jordan were. Does he really expect us to believe that if both Jordans had've broken down he would 've turned his back on 13 points? And the $ that would bring? I would've been very surprised to see that.

[Dixie Flatline]

I admire Paul Stoddart for continuing with Minardi when it seems obvious that unless there is a huge injection of cash from somebody like a manufacturer, his cars will be last or close to last each race.

Nevertheless, Stoddart is a self-made man, and therefore must possess at least a modicum of sharp business skills. I'm not saying that Stoddart said what he said for different motivations, but I wouldn't take what he said merely at face value. Stoddart has held a lot of animosity towards Mosley, particularly this season, and no doubt Stoddart feels that Mosley is to blame for what happened on Sunday (rightly or wrongly). This might colour his opinion about the affair quite substantially.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by thejester

Also, according to PS he was only out there because Jordan were. Does he really expect us to believe that if both Jordans had've broken down he would 've turned his back on 13 points? And the $ that would bring? I would've been very surprised to see that.

I think he would have brought them in,i think he would have loved to see the two Ferrari's circulating (were they really racing each other) alone.

[mac]

I doubt Paul has totally gotten over the dramas with Max in Melbourne this year.

Let's just say I don't think they send each other Christmas cards!

[Fiorentina 1]

Originally Posted by mac

I doubt Paul has totally gotten over the dramas with Max in Melbourne this year.

Let's just say I don't think they send each other Christmas cards!

Ya, exactly. But, I dodn't really buy the bit about pulling the Minardis off the track if Jordans fell out. Are you telling me that Stoddart wouldn't want to see a Minardi driver on the podium? I don't know man, there is a little too much acting in this press release.