Before heading off to Shanghai for the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix, Paul Stoddart took time out to answer a couple of questions posed by Pitpass editor, Chris Balfe.
Asked if Friday's news regarding Ford's decision to pull out of F1 had come as a total surprise, Stoddart's answer is brief and to the point, "No," he says.
"Does it surprise me that a manufacturer is pulling out of Formula One," he continues, "no again, but it saddens me. Then again, it doesn't surprise me.
"I don't think anyone should be surprised, because what Formula One is not doing is looking after its future. We should have sorted out a new commercial agreement a long time ago. But so many things have happened, with GPWC (Grand Prix World Championship) and other things. We talk about this and that, but nothing gets done.
"We need a new commercial agreement, Concorde Agreement, or whatever you want to call it, we need it, and we need it now. Otherwise, Ford will be only the first to pull out, and the teams will struggle. We have the ability to sort it out, whether we do it or not remains to be seen.
In the past 48-hours on message boards and forums, many F1 fans appear to think that three car teams would be a good thing, that three Ferraris versus three McLarens would really spice things up.
"That's bull***," he says, "it would be the end of Formula One as we know it now."
One of the points raised during the on-line press conference on Friday was that Ford said that it had to pull out of F1 because it could not justify the expenditure, which is hardly a good sales pitch for prospective buyers.
"If you include the cost of the engines, Jaguar probably has a budget of around £150m, and they're fighting with Toyota, a team which has one of the biggest budgets in F1," says the Australian. "When you consider that they're both fighting for eighth place in the championship, that's not what shareholders want to hear.
"You can't be spending that sort of money, and not having the required results to go with it.
"I'm sure also that the politics of F1 didn't help Ford," he adds. "Although the politics probably did help in influencing them to pull out. If the GPWC, of which Ford was a very strong member, had gone ahead, had the deal with Bernie, the Memorandum of Understanding, if that had gone ahead, together with a new commercial agreement between the banks and the teams, giving F1 some longevity, then perhaps you might have seen Ford not pull out.
"If you add it all together; big budget, lack of results, lack of clarity regarding the future, the inability to make the GPWC function, fighting with Max, fighting with Bernie… Is it any wonder that someone over in the States says 'F*** it, enough is enough'?"
When Balfe suggests that next year will probably be 'make or break' for Toyota, Stoddart is quick to interrupt. "No-one ever admits that F1 is in crisis, but it is. It's in crisis to the point that if we don't do something about it, it will be too late."
"Is there a 'magic' solution," asks Balfe. "Don't snigger, but should a fairy appear with its magic wand, what would you want?"
"A new commercial agreement," says Stoddart without a hint of hesitation. "We need some guarantees for the future, a little bit of stability."
Looking at Minardi and Jordan, there are some out there that feel F1, much like the real world, is dog eat dog, and that if you cannot survive, so be it. However, they don't seem to realise that should Toyota, Mercedes and BMW pull out, teams like McLaren and "WilliamsF1 would be in serious trouble.
"First off, Minardi is the fourth oldest team in F1," he says, "it's been here for twenty-one years, and now it's on the verge of out-living another F1 team.
"Quite simply, woe-betide F1 the day that the small F1 teams disappear, because the manufacturers cannot and will not remain when they are last in the series. Get rid of the private teams and you'll see the manufacturers leave, one by one. You cannot sell cars on Monday morning when your team's three or four cars finish last, last and last."
