Minardi still fighting for Prost’s cash !

By Huw Alban
June 14 2002

Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart has announced his intention to use a meeting in London in order to persuade rival teams that the lion’s share of the TV money forfeited by the collapse of Prost GP should go to his team. Arrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw has already stated his objections to the request.

Tom Walkinshaw is not alone in his objections. McLaren’s Ron Dennis has also publically stated that Stoddart is not entitled to the money, alledged to be around $12million. During the Austrian Grand Prix weekend it emerged that a letter from Stoddart seeking the other teams’ approval was countered by a further document from Arrows stating that the moneys should be distributed evenly throughout the grid.

“Hopefully we can resolve it once and for all at the meeting in London,” Stoddart was quoted as saying by F1-Live.com. “I think it will be solved on Thursday but I’ve stopped making predictions because, when you think something is right, both legally and morally, it doesn’t seem to carry a lot of weight.”

News sources also report that FIA President Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone were also attending the meeting, held yesterday. The general feeling in the media is that Stoddart’s proposals will have got lost in other pressing items on the agenda like, for instance, the new proposals for a one engine Grand Prix weekend.