Q&A: Paul Stoddart - part three.

He may have been through something of a turbulent 2002 campaign, but Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart was more than happy to reveal the secrets of a test drive with Michael Schumacher, the true role of Giancarlo Minardi and the feelings about Mark Webber's departure to Jaguar to the Australian media...

Q:
What do you see in terms of McLaren, Williams and any other team getting any closer to Ferrari in this coming year than they were in the past year?

PS:
I think they are going to try, there is no doubt about that. And I think if you ask Williams and McLaren, they will both tell you that they feel they are well on the way to catching up. I had the privilege of being driven by Michael [Schumacher] in the back of one of our two-seaters last month, and having done seven laps with the best driver the world has ever seen, or ever likely to see, I don't think they have got a chance in hell. But that's my opinion.

Q:
Is that where you put Schumacher? The best driver ever?
PS:
Without a doubt. In fact, it was so bad or so good - whichever way you want to look at it - that I had to drive the car the next day and I felt totally inadequate even getting into the thing.

Q:
Just following the question before last on the difficulty of your team and other private teams matching it with the likes of Ferrari, Williams and McLaren, will the rules coming on in the next couple of years allow teams on a smaller budget to get a little more competitive, a little closer to those teams?
PS:
Yes, it will and I think it's fair to say that teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, etcetera, we are not going to take anything away from them because it's not their fault. You can never, ever, knock excellence and professionalism and, whether that's in the money stakes of getting the budgets in, you have to give credit where credit is due. They have done a fantastic job. We haven't done such a good job. But I do believe in the next two to three years we are going to see a significant improvement in the fait of the smaller teams, because there are clear measures coming through that are designed to help us in terms of budget and to, also, I think, and I firmly believe we will see a renegotiated distribution of the TV money in the next couple of years, which will also help the smaller teams.

Q:
To follow on what you just said about seven laps behind Michael Schumacher in one of the Minardi two-seater cars, and you did an appraisal of him. Firstly, how did this come about that you were doing seven laps behind Michael Schumacher in one of your two-seater cars and, secondly, did he do any appraisal of your car?

PS:
Yes to both. Let's go back to the beginning, and it has a very Melbourne-orientated flavour this. When we scored those two points everybody saw we were all in tears, but basically Ferrari pulled me and Mark in as we were coming back off the podium into their garage to just say 'well done and congratulations, etc'. Michael, at that point, was in the pits and I jokingly invited him to our party that night - and he said 'yeah, I'll come, I'll bring my wife.' And he did, true to his word. He actually had another function he was supposed to go to, but he didn't go to it, he came to our party. And so did 660 other people from the pit-lane - from every team in the pit-lane - it was that popular. And, that night, we were just sitting at the bar talking and Michael's wife, Corinna, said to me 'I would love to feel what it's like to be in the car with Michael', and I said, 'Why don't you? We will do it at the end of the year'.

And it was the best kept secret in Formula One, when you consider all the media attention we had throughout the year. Nobody knew right up until the day we did it. And we did a whole day. Michael put his wife, he put [Ferrari team chief] Jean Todt and many other Ferrari people through, and the car did over a race distance. And I think I can only summarise it like this: Michael at the end said 'thank you'. He gave me a little memento and it said 'thank you', written on the side of it 'for a most fantastic, really reliable and fast, underlined, car'. And I will tell you now that Michael Schumacher 'qualified' a two-seater Minardi within 107 per cent - and those of you that understand exactly what that means will know what I'm saying. And that's why no-one is going to beat him.

MC:
Great story, Paul. Was Mark Webber being released from the second year of his Minardi contract to go to Jaguar, a team own by Ford, related to you securing a Cosworth engine, which is made by a Ford company?

PS:
Not in financial terms. We had been negotiating with Ford since July because we were fairly sure that Asiatech were not going to continue, or if they did continue they were going to continue without us. And Ford was a logical choice for us - we had very many friends, as I said earlier. The final considerations on Mark were to protect his future. At the time I had to make the decision, which was the weekend of the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, I could not at that time look Mark in the face and say that we were going to be on the grid in Melbourne. As I say, I took a tough decision, and it was tough for him as well because we got on fantastically, he loved everyone in the team and they loved him, but at the end of the day, guys, where would I be if I had hung on to Mark selfishly and then screwed his career up? It's not my style. We did what we had to do. And to answer your question directly, no, we did not get any financial compensation.

MC:
Do you think there was any risk at any point this year, that if Minardi had fallen over, that Mark Webber could have been left without a drive next year, or was he always going to be picked up by someone?
PS:
In talent, he always deserved to be picked up, but Formula One is a very, very funny sport. If you are not in the right place at right time you really can miss the boat, and equally if you are in the right place you can be set for life. There were times when I had to consider whether or not to hold Mark to his second year, where I really knew, hand on heart, that if I had taken that decision and then not been able to compete that all the other drives may well have been taken. And that would have been, perhaps not the end of his career, but he may have had to have sat out for twelve months. And that was not the plan. We want to see Mark Webber winning races and maybe going on to bigger and better things.

MC:
You mentioned before about how there are now ten teams, 20 cars, with Arrows seemingly gone now. Do you see any prospect in the next couple of years of new teams? Formula One is obviously in a rocky patch at the moment, but there was some talk about a sheik from Dubai who is known to us in Australia through his assaults on the Melbourne Cup horse racing carnival. Do you think, even if they didn't take over Arrows, that an entity like that could perhaps bob up with a new team?

PS:
Let's take this opportunity to clear something up. With Arrows, I sincerely am genuinely sad to see the end of Arrows. Let's forget Tom Walkinshaw for a minute. Arrows the team was full of some very good and competent and very nice people, as indeed was Prost, which was the other team that failed in the last twelve months. It's never good to see anybody go. To answer your question directly, sadly, no, I don't see any hope of anybody coming along at this moment in time. I think if anybody was going to come into the sport they would probably attempt to buy shares in, or indeed control of, one of the three private teams, but a new entrant now would be facing a very, very serious uphill battle and would probably be far better off to buy a competing team than to try to start one from scratch, for all sorts of reasons, none the least being the Concorde Agreement.

Q:
You mentioned earlier that you weren't in discussions with any vehicle manufacturers. You said that the alternative for long-term survival is hooking up with an equity partner. Is there any serious prospect, or what chance is there, that Minardi will acquire a serious equity partner in the next year or two?

PS:
Chances, I couldn't say. Are we in negotiation with one at the moment? No, we're not. Would we like to be? Of course, we would, if we thought those people could take the company further than I could, because really what I'm looking at is, a little bit like Mark's career, the long-term survival of Minardi is my most important priority. Hopefully, that will be with me in control of it, but if I see a financial opportunity where the team's future is assured then I would have to take that decision if and when that opportunity came along.

Q:
You talked about some drivers struggling in different categories. We saw Ryan Briscoe have a bit of drama in Formula 3000 this year. Do you think he will find form again and go on to be a Formula One driver?

PS:
He could well do. Come back to what I just said when I was answering one of the questions a minute ago. An awful lot depends on luck and being in the right place at the right time. I never judge a driver particularly by one drive alone. I'd like to rather look at what they've down throughout their career, because there will always be some particular formula where they did not excel. So we really ought never write a driver off just because of one bad performance in one particular formula, and I do think any of these guys have got incredible talent, but you need a little bit of luck as well.

Q:
Another young Aussie doing well is Will Davison. Do you know much about him?

PS:
I've heard of him. I've not had any direct contact, but we have got, as Australia always does, we've got tremendously talented individuals coming through. Again, and I'm sorry to beat the old drum, but let me just take this opportunity to cry out to the Australian corporate arena and say 'hey, guys, come on, support some of these people because Formula One takes money'. I got Mark there, and Mark's talent got Mark there, but if we want to see in years to come another Mark Webber we have to get people behind these young guys.

MC:
Formula One is obviously the reverse of football, in which you have to go out and spot the talent. It seems in Formula One the talent comes to you...

PS:
In the main, yes. That's not to say we are not out looking. Giancarlo Minardi has a tremendous eye for talent and has a tremendous track record in finding it. And he is always looking in areas that perhaps I'm not even aware of for the next superstars. But it's a combination of both. Sadly, we have to come back to money again, but it is true that in many cases undeniable talent goes unseen or unknown in the public eye because the poor kids don't find the sponsorship to get them up on to the ladder.

MC:
You mentioned Giancarlo Minardi there. Can you just clarify his position in the team as it is now. He was recently described in a wire service report as the managing director. We wondered if that was a mistake or whether his position has changed a bit during the course of the year, and that perhaps he is a bit more involved than we may have thought?

PS:
No, his actual truthful position is he is a director of the company, and his responsibilities as director include that of general manager of the Faenza factory. And that's where the confusion of managing director perhaps comes. But he is also in charge of driver development and he fulfils the commercial role in certain territories - Russia being one of them. So he does a great job and fulfils a multitude of roles.

Q:
What has been his response to what you've done with his team and achieved with his team in your two years?

PS:
Anyone that saw his face in Melbourne on that famous day will know the answer to that. He's incredibly proud. Nobody makes any secret of the fact that, if I hadn't come along, Minardi would have been consigned to the history books. Giancarlo is well aware of that, but we have a tremendous respect and a friendship for each other and I can honestly say, hand on heart, we really have worked as a team and it's been good for both of us, I think.

MC:
It seems a bit of a miracle to be able to make the takeover and everything to be so harmonious; it's a bit like having a divorce, then remarrying, and keeping your first wife as well...

PS:
You can sort of say that, but you have to remember Giancarlo is a bit of a master at this. He's almost like Henry VIII! I think he's had six 'wives' so far in terms of various team owners. And he is still being the one steadying force that's seen them all through. So he's been a bit of a survivor.

MC:
We have had a pretty good run, so we better not keep Paul too long. Are there one or two more questions somewhere? No. We've silenced them!

PS:
I think that was a tremendous conference.

MC:
If that's the case, thanks very much again, Paul, for joining us. As always, great to chat to you and great value. The guys all appreciate that. Certainly there is plenty to report on, write about, out of what has come out of today, so we really look forward to seeing you in Australia again in just a few weeks. All the best for Christmas and the New Year. All the best to everyone in the team and thanks very much for making your time available. And thanks to everyone else for participating.

PS:
Thanks everybody.