23/06/2003
NEWS STORY
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Minardi boss Paul Stoddart joined an elite club on Saturday when he caused pitpass editor Chris Balfe to be lost for words.
The Australian gave Chris a guided tour of the various items purchased in the recent Arrows auction and the pitpass editor was clearly overwhelmed by what he saw. "It was like a life size Scalextric set," said Balfe, "I found myself looking for spare track and the handsets."
Pride of place went to the five Arrows A23s, but it was the sheer scale of the amount of spares that Stoddart has purchased that knocked Balfe off his feet.
The spares fill an entire bay of the team's factory, with another two massive trucks filled with 'goodies' still to be unloaded out in the yard, it's understood that even many Minardi employees have yet to see this 'Aladdin's cave' of F1 equipment and a number of Faenza-based workers were due at the factory yesterday (Sunday) to start cataloguing the equipment.
"I can't tell you," said Stoddart when asked how much all this equipment had cost, "but it was a very small amount. What I bought were the things that I couldn't afford to buy before."
News of the purchase came days after the infamous Friday 13th press conference when Stoddart admitted that without the 'fighting fund' his team was finished, prompting F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone to buy a stake in the team.
The revelation that the Australian had purchased all the goodies prompted questions such as where did the money come from, and why buy it all in the first place. "How can Minardi be broke one minute, then buying 5 Arrows the next," asked Balfe.
"We were absolutely broke," replied Stoddart, "absolutely".
The Australian then revealed that the entire package didn't cost him or his team a penny. "First of all," he says, "just so we clear the air totally.." at this point he lifts a bunch of keys, underneath is an agreement that clearly indicates the fact that one of his sponsors bought everything.
"Secondly," he continued, "the idea behind this was simple. What Tom (Walkinshaw) had in place was the facilities to win the World Championship. He had unbelievable amounts of consumables. What we've bought was enough carbon to get us through next year (the 2004 season), in addition we got enough 'nuts and bolts' to see us through two or three seasons and enough fittings..
"What people don't realise," he continues, "is the amount of commonality between F1 cars, we all use basically the same suppliers for everything. In the areas where Minardi could not afford to buy, for example the exhaust system for the Cosworth engine the parts on the Arrows are the same as ours.
"Jos had a little fire last week," he revealed, "most people didn't notice because it was in the pitlane. That's because our exhausts were totally done, our five sets of exhausts. Teams like McLaren have got five sets per car per race, we've got five sets and these five sets that we started the season with are getting incredibly tired. Last weekend I bought enough bits to build fourteen sets of exhausts. That's just one example.
"Minardi made, through the help of one of its sponsors, an incredibly wise investment," added the Australian. "In all honesty the cars were just for free, the by-product of the deal."
"It was a very shrewd move," says Balfe.
"It's a case of doing what you have to do in order to survive in a world where you're operating on a budget of one-twentieth of your competitors," says Stoddart. "It's not easy so you have to make every dollar count for a lot more than anyone else, you don't waste a penny."
During the course of the guided tour Stoddart revealed that his team will hold back to back tests between the PS03 and the Arrows A23 after the British GP, though he dismissed reports that he may race the cars but revealed that since he now owns the 'intellectual property' rights of the A23 he could indeed race them.
Stoddart also revealed that contrary to reports it was not the rear end of the car that interests him so much as the front end and that he is prepared to 'explore' certain ideas.
Apart from the sheer scale Balfe was left feeling sad at the sheer waste and the overwhelming sense of sadness.
"In many ways it was like looking through a dead relative's remaining possessions," said the pitpass editor. The cars were in pristine condition, but you'd expect that. What got to me was the manner in which even individual nuts and bolts had been bubble wrapped. You got the overwhelming impression that these items hadn't been cast aside but had been painstakingly looked after by Arrows employees who thought they were going to go racing again. I truly felt a sense of loss.
"David Richards has said repeatedly that F1 teams need to reduce spending," added Balfe, "this is crap, what F1 teams must do is cut down on waste, and this was a prime example. Pallet after pallet filled with expensive items that were surplus to requirements, expensive 'foam' for the headrests and cockpits, titanium uprights.. on and on it went. It really appears that there was no attempt at stock control, why buy one spare part (as an example) when you can have fifty, and when you're talking about items at a couple of thousand (pound) a time, that's sheer bloody madness.
"There is enough equipment here to build a new team," added Balfe, "and Minardi have made a very shrewd move, they've even bought a box of light bulbs!
"Paul revealed that included in the deal was an item of equipment which tests front wings for damage, something the team could not afford before. If they'd had this in Spain 2002, when they withdrew from the Spanish GP after wing failures, they could have taken part."