MOTOR SPORT/Formula One Championship: Paul Stoddart will leave the paddock tomorrow afternoon an estimated £23 million to the good. The Australian has been Formula One's most enthusiastic underdog for five years but has had enough and sold his Minardi team to Red Bull.
Stoddart, who became a millionaire by trading in aircraft and their spare parts, has revelled in his aggressive stance towards the sport's governing body, which brought him to a head-on collision with the FIA president Max Mosley earlier this year. Some insiders believe this weakened his position to the point where he was persuaded to sell his team.
"Formula One's loss is Australian V8 saloon cars' gain," said a waspish statement from the governing body on hearing the news; Stoddart's budget airline OzJet will sponsor the touring car series in his native country.
Stoddart has been an irritant to Mosley ever since he applied to the Victoria Supreme Court seeking to force the Australian grand prix organisers to permit Minardi to run their 2004 car on the basis the technical rule changes introduced for 2005 were improperly implemented by the governing body. Mosley responded by threatening to cancel all FIA-sanctioned motorsport in Australia until Stoddart backed down.
"It's has not been an easy decision to leave Formula One but I would like to think I'm not finished with the business yet," the entrepreneur said. "I'm going to miss it too much but for the team it was the right decision. They were probably the happiest five years of my life but also the hardest and hopefully, with a bit of pressure off, it will give me time to reconsider what, if anything, might still be around."
At a time when huge changes are imminent at the back of the field - Sauber have been sold to BMW, Jordan absorbed by the Midland group - Stoddart believes the demise of the smaller teams is increasing the probability that the major car manufacturers will set up a separate world championship from 2008.
"Formula One . . . doesn't need to be run and administered in the way that it is," he said in a parting shot. "In life, whether in democracy, in government or in fundamental human rights, you expect fairness and equality. We don't have that."
Yet it is racing, pure and simple, for which Stoddart admits he will most likely shed a tear. In particular he remembers Minardi was in a "desperate position" with no car, sponsor or engine barely two months before the opening race of the 2001 season.
"It took a pretty serious effort to be there with our new driver, Fernando Alonso (his first grand prix, now world champion), and I will always remember the tears of pride that day," he said.
Meanwhile, Mosley is expected to offer a glimpse of Formula One's future today when he unveils his proposals for radical changes to the aerodynamic specifications of the cars. These modifications were due to be introduced from the start of 2008 but Mosley hopes they can be brought forward by a year if they receive the unanimous support of all competing teams.
The planned changes, which were developed in conjunction with the FIA's technology partner AMD, will be announced on the eve of what promises to be a tense battle for the constructors' world championship.
McLaren begin tomorrow's race in Shanghai defending a two-point lead over Renault after Kimi Raikkonen's victory in last Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.
Yesterday Raikkonen and his McLaren team-mates Juan Pablo Montoya and test driver Pedro de la Rosa set the pace at the front of the field in free practice. Ricardo Zonta's Toyota and Fernando Alonso's Renault also went well while Jenson Button took eighth place.
Nico Rosberg, son of the 1982 world champion Keke, said in Shanghai yesterday he has been told by Williams he will be part of their team next season.
Guardian Service
