Minardi and McLaren face off!

[Yanden]

TEAM PRINCIPALS.
Ron DENNIS (MCLAREN)
Eddie JORDAN (JORDAN)
David RICHARDS (BAR)
Paul STODDART (MINARDI)
Frank WILLIAMS (WILLIAMS)
(Please note: Dennis, Jordan, Richards and Williams are absent at the start of the conference.)

Question You’ve issued this press release regarding the so- called ‘fighting fund’ and withdrawing your agreement to rules. It reveals a certain amount of frustration obviously. Can you tell us the background to it?

Paul Stoddart: Sadly, as you can see by the absence of any other team principals, it looks as if I have been left to tell it as it is. Let me just say at the start of this, this is not something I either want to do, that I relish doing and I think is wholly wrong for Formula One, but unfortunately, certain team principals make statements, make commitments, indeed contracts that are not followed through. I withdrew my support to the changes for next year and I have to say that I didn’t agree with them in the first place, they were changes that I conceded as an overall package of assistance to Formula One, for larger bodywork, larger advertising space for those teams lucky enough to have sponsors, or needs for more space for sponsors. When it was clear that the so-called fighting fund that was so committed to back on January 15 was not going to occur, I felt that, in Minardi’s interests, I had no choice but to withdraw my consent to the changes to the rules.

That meant it was no longer unanimous which of course meant that no vote was taken by the World Council. As I said at the beginning of this, it’s not something I’m proud of, but there’s a lot of background to this. I’m quite disappointed that I am on my own today because much has been discussed privately which is where it all should have been discussed over the past five months, basically. We’re now at the halfway mark of the season; just when is Jordan and Minardi to receive their funds from the so-called fighting fund if not now? It’s a bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. So I find myself on my own here today and perhaps I might take this opportunity to give a bit of background to the much- publicised fighting fund. On January 15, in the morning meeting at Heathrow, it was a unanimous agreement made to the creation of a fund that would allow ten teams to remain in the Formula One championship for 2003. It seems we have a few arrivals…<br>
(Dennis, Jordan, Richards and Williams arrive)
Paul Stoddart: (continues): As I was saying, certain commitments were made on January 15 that were supported in the morning meeting, at least, unanimously, by all the team principals present. Those commitments were much publicised and indeed recorded even in a letter from Ron and Frank to Max Mosley, the well- publicised letter which everybody is aware of. Over the past few months, it’s become clear that there are different objectives between certain team principals that wish to have the so-called fighting fund extrapolated to many other areas of issues within Formula One that each individual person would like to see resolved. That period has not been terribly easy for Minardi. We make no secret that we have struggled and we make no secret that is our fault that we have struggled but what I believe passionately in is that there is a need for ten teams in Formula One and it’s time that people honoured their commitments and not tried to hijack those commitments to satisfy other agendas and basically let it keep going and going and going until a point where nothing is done. And that’s what brought it to today.

Question So you genuinely agree that you had a verbal agreement?

Paul Stoddart:Let me just read you one passage from Ron and Frank’s letter to Max Mosley. “Furthermore, in a meeting on the morning of the 15th of January 2003, the team principals and Bernie Ecclestone unanimously agreed, provided there is real stability, to reallocate television income within the sport to ensure that all the current participants would be able to remain in the sport throughout the 2003 season, this included substantial sums to which McLaren and WilliamsF1 has an entitlement.” They’re Frank and Ron’s words, not mine.

Question Now if you have a problem, if you don’t get this money, what is the future of the team?

Paul Stoddart: Minardi will, as I’ve said, continue to survive and continue to compete and complete in the rest of the season but in what state? Today we were 11th and 13th, we had equalised conditions, a bit of rain and the same tyres as everybody else. I would like to think that we can continue. We’re the fourth oldest team in Formula One, behind only Ferrari, McLaren, Williams. It’s not for me, I don’t care, but I believe passionately that the team deserves to survive; the sport needs to have ten teams, because to not have ten teams would bring in all kinds of horrible problems. Just take a classic example – and Eddie can speak for himself – but were Eddie, or rather Jordan and Minardi cease to exist after this race. Just paint a scenario here: what would happen is that there would be a ballot from the FIA to put four third cars out and just say, because it could happen, that those cars were a McLaren with Wurz, Gene in a Williams, Badoer in a Ferrari and say McNish in a Renault. Four of the top cars.

And just say that they were first, second and third at the next Grand Prix, and perhaps it will be the Chancellor that’s presenting the trophy. He would standing to an empty podium, because that car cannot go on a podium, those drivers cannot take part in any points- scoring and more importantly, they are not reallocated to any other competitor. What sort of a message would that send out of the state of Formula One? I don’t believe it is in crisis. We did not need to have this come to this today or this situation come to this today, but the day we start running third cars and send the message out that we can’t even find ten teams to compete and that we can’t honour our promises to keep ten teams competing, then you’ve got a crisis.

[Yanden]

Question Can I go to Eddie, because he’s a recipient, or a potential recipient of the so-called fighting fund, what is his position in this?

Eddie Jordan: Er, well, first of all, I’m somewhat surprised with the format in the way this press conference is happened. It’s not in its usual nature, is it? It’s just about this one subject or are there other subjects to discuss?

Question We were going to discuss other subjects; I was going to start elsewhere but we started already with Paul because he was the only one here when we started.

Eddie Jordan: Well, Jordan’s position is its own position, it’s a private decision and it’s a private position, with our sponsors, with our drivers. We have our own position. Paul and Minardi has theirs. I absolutely see Paul’s position and support every team that has problems. We have our own problems, we’ve got to sort them ourselves. Paul has made a comment and that the plight of his own team is his own, and the plight of, maybe in previous years, certainly now that’s in the future with the engine supply hopefully it will make it easier to develop and to make a car well, but it has been very difficult this year. I don’t necessarily think this is the correct forum to be going through a lot of this. It’s already been said, but at the same time, having said it, and it’s now out in the public, Paul’s position, if possible, should be helped.

Question How vital is the fighting fund to you?

Eddie Jordan: I do believe that without any doubt, this Formula of ours needs more good news rather than bad news. I support… I think every single member of Formula One wants ten cars – ten teams, needs 20 cars. It’s the whole fabric of how we were brought up. When I came into Formula One, there was 18 cars going for four places on the grid for pre-qualifying. It was the most daunting time of my entire life, it was horrific. Now it’s the complete opposite, virtually. So we need to be careful. I think it is important to have private teams but I think certain things have been made place with promises of engines at a certain price which will make it easier. We just have to all get through this year.

But how do you say about Jordan? Look, I have great sponsors with Benson and Hedges, they’ve been with me a very long time but I promise you, it’s incredibly tight but I don’t want… Everyone has its own individual situations. BAR has theirs, Ron has his. Frank, Paul and me, we’re all different, you can’t categorise, pull them in. But if certain things which Paul was talking about, the 15th of January, I do believe that certain things were said about the maintenance of the fabric of ten teams in Formula One which was very important and not to have three cars from any individual, those things were very clear. And to do that, certain funds that were available in the sport, should be made possible. But everyone has their own different view on it. This is a big political situation at the moment and I need to get my head together exactly what is meant by it.

Question So can I ask Ron Dennis and Frank Williams what their position is?

Frank Williams: My position’s quite clear. Many of you know me quite well and you will well remember that I refuse to talk about business matters that pertain to Williams in a public forum. That is my position today. I should also add that I resent being set up. It was a set-up, I quite realise that long before I got to this circuit and I reinforce what Ron has said, that this should be a sporting format. I will answer any sporting questions about Formula One or the Grand Prix event coming up, but I just prefer to discuss Formula One team matters in Formula One team meetings. I hope you understand my position, gentlemen and ladies.

Ron Dennis: Well, to be honest I’m disappointed in Paul’s position. I’ve done probably more than anybody to try and help Paul. I know that…he made reference to the fact that I did initiate the concept of a fighting fund. It’s true. He read out a paragraph of a letter. It’s true, absolutely true, but fails to point out that we do not have technical stability, which was part of the process. He also has not made reference to the fact that the fighting fund required Bernie to double the sum that was discussed, and a whole range of other issues. But I only echo Frank’s words. This is not the forum to find solutions to these sorts of problems. I understand and sympathise with Paul’s position but his presentation of the information understandably leaves out a whole range of complex peripheral issues that had a bearing on that 15th Post meeting. This was a meeting that preceded a very difficult meeting with the FIA in which they changed many things and imposed on us a great deal of cost.

It’s true to say that post that meeting, we’ve had very good progress with the FIA and found or are finding a very good balanced way forward for the future of Formula One. But nevertheless, it’s not been without cost and significant cost. But it’s just the wrong forum to talk about a problem such as this, and that puts aside specific moments of time when Frank and myself have stepped in and assisted. I don’t want to give anybody the detail. Paul knows exactly what I’m talking about, so I take quite an offence, but I understand his position, to being positioned as some individual who lacks sympathy or lacks support for the smaller teams, because that is not the case. I certainly take a great deal of issue with anyone that says I don’t keep my word, which is just unfounded and inaccurate. I just hope that Paul understands that I don’t think it serves a function to get into some verbal game of tennis here that is just not substantiated by the facts or the circumstances that surround his difficult situation.

Question Paul, do you have a further comment to make?

Paul Stoddart: I think the comment is very simple - that I disagree quite strongly with what’s been said. Commitments were made. They were made both publicly and privately. There were conditions about real stability but would we want to really change results of the first three races? I don’t think so. What we’ve done for the sport this year is seen a much better format. Here we are at the halfway mark, we’ve got two championships, Constructors and Drivers, split by a couple of points. Chances are it will go to the wire. Compared to the year we had last year I think we’ve made one hell of an improvement. I don’t agree with Ron on the extra costs and I don’t agree with Frank and Ron, and Eddie for that matter, that positive commitments were not made on the 15th of January. They were made on the 15th of January. Whether this is the right forum, I don’t know? But at the end of the day, it’s time the truth came out.

[Yanden]

Question David, where do you stand on this?

David Richards: Well, Paul knows exactly my position. I’ve been consistent from the outset and I hope Paul would support that view, that I haven’t changed my position right from the beginning. But it’s not a simple matter and it’s certainly not a matter that can be cleared up or clarified even in a forum such as this. We all face our own individual problems running teams today. The whole economic environment we’re working in today is extraordinarily difficult and it’s understandable that all of us at times do face situations like this, but I certainly don’t think that airing these situations like this or even… Paul’s unfortunately decided not to support the changes we all agreed earlier this year to the technical regulations for next year. That’s quite unfortunate because the basic issues of those changes were to increase the engine cover, increase the rear wing endplates and the rear wing so we could give more advertising space to our sponsors and this does seem rather a negative view that isn’t going to help any of us and certainly isn’t going to help Paul in the long run. I’m pleased that he can make the end of the season and I hope that we can press on because I think that we are moving towards a more equitable situation in Formula One, both in the distribution of the income that can be achieved from Formula One generally and I’m quite convinced that the car manufacturers, the engine suppliers, will come up with an engine solution. But they’re certainly not going to if we continue to run down the sport and air our dirty washing in public.

Question If I can briefly come to another subject for you, that of Jacques Villeneuve, because here we are in Canada…<br>
David Richards: A lot easier than the one we’ve been on!

Question If I can particularly ask you about his future because that’s what a lot of the Canadian press want to know about.

David Richards: Well clearly, again, the situation with the drivers I’ve always tended to leave ‘til well after mid-season, certainly after the British Grand Prix and I’ve said that to all the press previously, that I’m not going to get into debates about where we are with drivers - other than the fact that we have a contract with Jenson for the long term - until the latter part of July. I have to admit that Jacques has had a very poor start to the season, not from his own making, but quite frankly through the reliability that ourselves and Honda have offered to him with the car, and that’s an issue we have to address ourselves and I made that commitment to Jacques recently when I went to Monza to see him testing last week. So we’re certainly working on that together and he feels confident, he can see the team’s improving, he can see the opportunities are there and so hopefully we can sort that out.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Question For all you, Ferrari’s super team has now signed through 2006. What are your thoughts of having to take on that potent combination for the next three and a half years?
FW: Well, it was good news in one way that Michael was off the driver market but depressing news that the group will stay together, so it’s not going to be easy. But we’re ready for the fight.

Ron Dennis: Well, we love a challenge. It’s great that they’re all staying in. Why not? If you’re going to win a world championship, if that’s what one of us able to do, why not against the strongest competition? I mean that’s Formula One, it’s competitive and if they weren’t there and you won a world championship everyone would have been saying ah, yeah, but if it had been a Ferrari this or that…Great. And it’s great that Michael’s staying in Formula One, it’s great that they’re staying together and I hope that we’re the team that’s going to beat them. And they will be beaten.

Paul Stoddart: I don’t think it’s going to concern me terribly much, but having said that, I fear that, for Ron and Frank, with that combination they may find championships hard to find and would also refer to the fact that if we lose ten teams and we put out non-points scoring cars, the very words that Ron said that people would say ‘yeah, but…’ is exactly what’s going to happen under that scenario and it could well happen in this year’s championship.

David Richards: They clearly set the benchmark today, but it’s quite hard to keep up that year after year after year and there will come a day, I’m quite sure, when they’ll be challenged by somebody hopefully in this room.

Eddie Jordan: I happen to believe that Michael will never see out that time. I believe it’s probably the right thing to do from a PR exercise but I’d like to see what exit clauses are in that contract. I think that there are a lot of very, very talented young up-and-coming drivers and I also happen to believe that a driver such as the magnitude of Michael makes sure that he has the opportunity to leave with great dignity and I would be surprised if he goes past ’04 – that’s just my view. I think that there are some really strong combinations and outfits available at the moment. That’s my view. I do not see… I can’t see how it’s in Michael’s interest to go to ’06 as much as we might like it to happen.

[Yanden]

Question Formula One is looking for a new way to find out much more competition and show. In this way, what does a day like today mean?

Paul Stoddart: I’ll take it first. I think it levels the playing field when you get a situation like this. You have a level playing field on tyres. You have a levelling of the individual characteristics of each car and it becomes very much a driver’s skill as to where they end up and perhaps a little bit of luck as to how hard the rain’s coming down and I think it’s good for the sport. We need a few races like this or qualifying sessions like this to just make it very interesting for the viewers.

Eddie Jordan: I think the conditions were, surprisingly enough, very different throughout the qualifying session, so Paul’s two cars ran at the same time. I think everybody in the room sees where two drivers in the same team had huge disparaging (he means disparate) times, it’s not down to talent. There was much heavier rain in the middle and stuff like that, but it is actually interesting to shake it all up in the middle, so from that point of view, sure, it’s interesting.

Question I’d like to ask Ron and Paul this question - whether they think the idea of philanthropy and Formula One go together? What’s the point of having an incredibly competitive series and helping out your rivals?

Paul Stoddart: Well, I think we’ve just got to look at football. In many, many sports you’re looking to have the actual sporting spectacle and if you’re competing with budgets that are 20 times your budget then it’s very, very hard. Many football and other sporting areas give the little guys a bit of a chance. Now, if what we’re saying here is you want to the little guys out of the sport, well, to be honest that’s exactly how I feel it’s going anyway, then perhaps that’s the way it’s going to go. It will be a manufacturers’ series but I think there are many fans worldwide that will see that as a very, very sad day for Formula One. And also, what manufacturer would like to see their cars consistently at the back of the grid? It’s not a nice place to be. It’s very hard to defend to sponsors and it’s very hard to defend to shareholders or partners.

Ron Dennis: Well, I’ll answer the question in a slightly different way. First of all, I think that perhaps going by the potential body language that’s being displayed here that you’d think Formula One is in a very difficult and downward spiral. I personally don’t believe that’s the case. We have seen, over the last three months, a plateauing of the situation regarding the attracting of new sponsors. We’re in negotiation, ourselves, of several new sponsors, we have extended several contracts and in most instances we’ve increased the face value of the contracts. The TV figures are not as a great as they’ve always been but we are very competitive against all other television sport.

Sport generally is down, television is down as a whole and of course, through Bernie’s efforts, we’re opening new markets in the Middle East and China. So we know our figures are going to surge again. The simple fact is that there are 388 million watching each and every Grand Prix. That is a tremendous penetration of the world TV market. The demographics of the viewer are exceptional, very unusual because of course we pull a whole family in front of a television on a Sunday and this is a great sport. There have been huge brands come and go in Formula One: Brabham, Lotus, many many more. And it’s an inevitable ebbing and flowing of Formula One because, as Paul points out, it is difficult at the back of the grid.

But no one gave me a handout. I climbed from humble backgrounds into a position of being responsible for a competitive team and, along that way, I can’t remember anyone giving me a handout and, more importantly, I never asked for one. This is a tough, competitive sport and if you can’t take the heat, get out the bloody kitchen. The bottom line is… Paul’s position, I understand, but he is damaging Formula One by his actions and I love Formula One. And because of that, I’m, not particularly ingratiated by what he said, and even more so, less ingratiated when he infers that there are people, one of which is myself, that is not keeping his word, which is absolutely not true. Formula One has a place for everybody, but it’s not…we do not have a soup kitchen in Formula One.