This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Minardi Punch Above Their Weight BAR Unhappy with Bridgestone

Minardi Punch Above Their Weight

Whilst many team principals are arguing that Paul Stoddart is probably the worst thing that has happened to the image of the sport for bringing dirty laundry out in the open, officialdom is quietly backing his stand.

The biggest story from Magny-Cours was Stoddart's widely circulated memo, indicating his intent to run Minardi without electronic aids at Silverstone. The implication was not lost on the team bosses, who hastily arranged a meeting to discuss a resolution to what was becoming a perplexing dilemma. Either Stoddart is going to get his fighting fund and a ten million dollar engine supply next year, or any team that runs electronic aids henceforth will be protested... and the FIA agree with him.

When the team principals came together, the argument was somewhat heated, but Stoddart stood his ground. Minardi are going to run without electronic aids at Silverstone, and unless they have a contract for engines, plus the fighting fund, they would quite happily see everyone else excluded. The major manufacturers on the other hand have not considered dropping traction control since they bargained with the FIA for that rule change to go away: in return for which, there was an agreement to provide cheap engines for customer teams.

Now that the push is coming to shove, the manufacturers have been passing the buck over who can actually deliver the supply at the ten million mark, whilst the teams have continued to argue over who can actually find the cash for the fighting fund. It has taken another public stand by Minardi, drawing the lines again, to prevent the teams from continuing blithely on with traction control, without delivering on their own end of the deal.

That is the bare bones of the issue, anyway. There has been a lot said besides, but it distills down to the manufacturer-backed teams wanting to leverage their advantages, and devil take the hindmost, against the needs of Minardi, whose future depends on the success of the FIA's attempts to make the sport accessible to small teams again.

It's not as though Minardi cannot offer to bring something of value in return either. When they developed eight two-seater Formula One cars a couple of years back, the paddock laughed at the way the outfit wasted what resources were available, rather than concentrating on the business at hand. Of course, the two reasons for building the cars were - first and foremost - this team is in it for love of the sport, not just the business of winning, making the idea of running a Minardi two-seater race, but also, before the global economy stuttered, as a fantastic marketing tool. Being able to hand sponsors the chance to experience the sport from the cockpit gave the team something different to offer.

Those cars are still around, mothballed because Minardi do not have the funds to run them. But that could change - Stoddart has offered to make them available at Grand Prix, so that teams can run a mini-championship with guests as passengers. It would appear that the deal would see the cars at each European event, in the colour schemes of the individual teams, and with time for engineers to add their own sponsor decals. In return, the teams would cover costs - and pay according to means in to a fighting fund.

There are obvious advantages if the teams buy into the idea. Any television coverage, obviously, would be good for the sponsors. Similarly, for the teams that are short of funds, there are a lot of test drivers who would pay decent money to drive even the two-seater variants of these cars. For the more charitable, offering the passenger seat in the car for a race at auction would be a huge success - as McLaren have demonstrated in the past with their car.

Despite the obvious potential, so far there has not been any feedback from the other teams: it is almost as though the idea had never been mentioned. Rather like the FIA's ban on traction control from Silverstone!

BAR Unhappy with Bridgestone

At the start of the season, when Jacques Villeneuve qualified sixth with limited running, BAR thought they had finally cracked it, and come up with a car that would do justice to the budget that produced it. Since then, from that day onwards, they have watched the three top Michelin teams holding an unassailable advantage that, alongside with Ferrari, have locked out the points paying positions, let alone the podium.

Really, it has been the story of the season for BAR. The car, compared against the other Bridgestone runners, is a gem - and a massive improvement on last year's model. Yet, even though there are Championship points down to eighth place, the team are just not producing the results, with Bridgestone pinpointed as the biggest factor... and little hope of reprieve over the remainder of the season either.

In testing, BAR have been working with Bridgestone to identify the tyres that work best with their car; however, the compounds they are given to try are all those previously tried and approved by Ferrari. The team are getting limited input to the development process as the tyre manufacturer is concentrating on their main team. In fairness, Bridgestone has always been fairly clear that their priority is to have Ferrari winning races, then go to work with their remaining partners to improve their lot: the ethos being, if the tyre is good enough to win races, then the other teams should be able to make a pretty good fist of it.

However, it is leaving BAR very frustrated. They believe that this car comfortably has the beating of the other midfield teams, and should have been able to take the fight to Renault for fourth place overall - and with the potential to score podiums to boot. Bridgestone's attempts to reduce the deficit to Michelin is resulting in a number of different solutions being tested, leading to mixed signals on the direction.

The problem is, there is very little BAR can do. Bridgestone are already putting in all their development effort on maintaining Ferrari's challenge. When they produce constructions that work for their other teams, that is something of a bonus, but apart from some choice on compound, that is where it ends.

Little surprise, then, that BAR's David Richards has been talking to Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier - purely a social visit, of course...