Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart said on Monday he will take motor sport’s governing body to court if it prevents his team from racing at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next month.
The FIA, quoted on several motor-sport websites, said it could prevent Minardi from racing at Melbourne’s Albert Park on March 6 because Minardi plan to use an updated version of their 2004 model car for the first three races of the season.
The FIA said it believes the cars will not meet new technical regulations for this season and will not pass scrutiny to allow them to race.
However, Stoddart, an Australian based in the United Kingdom, said any attempt to prevent them racing will be protested, possibly in court in Australia’s Victoria state, thereby allowing the team to take part before the case is heard.
”I don’t think it will come to that. I would like to think that sanity will prevail but you never know in formula one,” Stoddart said on Melbourne radio station SEN on Monday.
”We’re ready for that situation, totally ready for it, and were that to happen we would race under protest. Were a protest not to be entertained at the track, it certainly would in the Victorian Supreme Court.
”We’ve taken some pretty solid legal advice and, if necessary, we will be presenting ourselves up there and asking for injunctive relief to race under protest for a case that we know we would win ultimately when the arbitration was heard, some months further down the line.”
All rival teams except Ferrari have reportedly given their approval for Minardi to use the 2004 cars for the season openers in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain before switching to the 2005 cars for the first European race in San Marino, Italy.
Stoddart said the sport’s new safety rules — forcing teams to make engines and tyres last longer — will be to the detriment of the smaller teams and will fail in their bid to lower lap times.
”Who is going to be disadvantaged by this regulation? The small teams.” Stoddart said.
”I guarantee you now that, weather permitting, the pole position in Melbourne will be exactly what it was last year.”
Minardi will announce on Tuesday its second driver for 2005, joining Christijan Albers. — Sapa-AP