s2ksimon

Albers' street parade may be his only running
for Minardi in Australia

Ferrari are refusing to back down in a row with Minardi over allowing the Formula One minnows to use last year's cars in the season opening Australian Grand Prix at the weekend.

Minardi, Formula One's smallest team, say they have not been able to afford to comply with new rules aimed at slowing Formula One cars down. They can race if all the other teams give their approval, and only Ferrari have refused their consent.

Team boss Paul Stoddart said: "As of now, Wednesday afternoon, the situation is that Minardi will not be competing in Sunday's race because Todt has refused to agree to our request.

"I spoke to him at 3am and he said he won't agree to it, stating that it is an FIA matter. But it's not, and he knows that.

"The FIA needs to satisfy themselves that cars are safe, and the nine teams need to agree that we can compete outside the technical regulations. They are totally separate issues with separate procedures."

Stoddart believes that world champions Ferrari are not doing themselves any favours by standing in Minardi's way.

"That is eight teams for and one against. I personally can't think of a bigger public relations disaster than banning the underdog from what is effectively our home race. He told me he will not be in Melbourne until Friday morning, and that he is not interested in our problem."

"He won't delegate the matter either. The sad thing is that this is not a sporting matter, but a political one."

There had been talk of going to court in a bid to be allowed to compete, but Stoddart said: "Our advice indicates that we have a case, but it would mean disrupting the tenth anniversary of the grand prix I love above all others. I refuse to do that. But I am not ruling out later legal action."


I'd love to hear Jean Todt's reason

Nabs 79

damn ferrari!

s2ksimon

they must have their reasons.. i'm just waiting to hear the story from their side..

or maybe Matrix wants chime in and speak on their behalf

matrix

If Ferrari said "Hey, we're not going to meet the technical rules this year, but we still want to race so come on guys give us your okay so we can race..."

What do you think the response would be?

The only reason the other teams say okay, is because they view them as being non-competitive. If they were, they would say no way that they could race outside of the rules.

So if they are not competitive and can't meet the minimum rule set but should be allowed in - well hey I want to race my S2000 in F1 too!

That's my opinion only ....

s2ksimon

I"ll forward your reply to Maranello and conference you in with Jean, Ross and Rory

matrix

I already checked with them....

Oh and Rubens says hi.....

Nabs 79

Triple-H

100%

Rules are rules and all parties in the game need to play by them, be they good or bad rules. I respect Jean for having enough of a backbone to stand up to his principles.

I can just see the issues if Minardi ran and earned points and then come the end of the season that paticular number of points made a difference in the final stnadings. As far as I'm concerned it is Pandora's Box and they should not be allowed to be an exception to the rule.

Let's face it, their lack of money is tied into their lack of performance and their lack of performance is tied into their lack of money. This is Formula One Racing, the ultimate expression of technology in the world (or well it was before this year's rule changes) and if Minardi can't pony up to the bar then they can pack up their back marking team and go home.

matrix

Exactly!

Triple-H

Hey, you were supposed to say


100%