Paul Stoddart, the boss of perennial F1 minnow team Minardi, has lashed out at McLaren-Mercedes and Williams-BMW for wasting millions in their attempts to beat Ferrari.
Paul Stoddart, the boss of perennial F1 minnow team Minardi, has lashed out at McLaren-Mercedes and Williams-BMW for wasting millions in their attempts to beat Ferrari.
The Australian recently told British tabloid that despite having racing budgets of what he claimed to be about £100 million (R1,16 billion) a year, front-running teams Williams and McLaren had few results to show for their efforts and were making a meal of challenging Ferrari’s F1 supremacy.
“The motor home of Ron Dennis (F1 team boss) costs almost more than it does to take the whole of my team to a race,” Stoddart said. “I can’t believe Williams and McLaren can’t do a good enough job to challenge Michael and Ferrari with the amount of money they have available,” he continued. “If I had a budget of £100 million I’d be able to challenge, but they have wasted it.
“My drivers have competed more race laps than McLaren,” he added, “and that shows just what a great job we do.”
So far, Minardi has completed 257 (out of a possible 342), compared to McLaren’s 219. WilliamsF1 has completed 312.
Although Minardi was struggling to remain in the F1, Stoddart believed the introduction of a reasonably-priced engine package proposed by the FIA, some form of compulsory budget cutting, including a reduction in private testing, and an increased share of the “F1 pot” for the small teams, which include Jordan and Jordan, would help his team survive.
“Unfortunately, my hands are tied with my budget,” he said. “If I had more money I’d show what we could really do.”
