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05 looks like another write off

Having seen Stoddarts comment that the Hybrid car is so slow that Minardi should be allowed to run the 04 car instead.
I fear I've written off next year. One wonders what the plan has been for the 05 season. Its pretty clear there was no hoarding of money to develop a new car.
The hybrid car's slower because thats what the FIA rules were meant to do.
If you look at Minardi's car, the monocoque is much too large for the size of the wings, ie too much frontal profile and drag. The solution the team need a smaller tub.
We've seen Minardi taken down too many dead ends under Stoddart, buying the Arrows hacks, taking on the 2 seater program etc.
On the driver side it seems that we are searching beneath the barrel as opposed to scraping the bottom. How many drivers are going to front up with $5-$8 million to drive uncompetitive machinery.
There's no quick fix either, its too late for a new designer to affect next year's car and even if we outsourced our aero program to a proper company like Aerolab it would take half a season to have any affect.
I fear that the FIA could reintroduce the 107% rule on the grounds of safety in order to limit speed differentials during the race. Where that leaves Minardi is a no brainer....

Comments

  • Stoddart didn't say that. That's pure bullshit. You've got your head in you ass on this one and you've been caught.
  • So Stoddart did not say that Minardi should be allowed to race the 04 car?
  • That's not what you were infering. Let's go over a time-line.

    1. Minardi signs contract to use Cosworth TJ engines.

    2. Cosworth's future in doubt. 2005 car put on hold, dispensation requested in the event that engines can't be delivered. Stoddart comments that if the PS01 has to conform to 2005 regs, it will be a disaster for Formula One.

    3. Cosworth sold. TJ engines will be delivered. 2005 program resumes but now behind schedule. Stoddart requests the first fly-away races be done using the 2004 package.

    4. Winter testing begins. Nissany notes that the car is noticably slower and harder to drive under 2005 regulations.

    5. You make this post:
    Having seen Stoddarts comment that the Hybrid car is so slow that Minardi should be allowed to run the 04 car instead.
    Simply put, what you stated is not true, never happened.
  • The point I'm making is about the TUB. The one minardi are using was designed in 01. AFAIK the new regs did not define a preset design. So why was no effort made to concentrate on this area.
    As for the engine No one seriously suggested that Cosworth would go out of business. The hold up was the price and whether Minardi could afford it. Ita a case of reading between the lines....
  • Nice backpedal.

    Nobody denies that the tub is ageing. If Quigley and I have our shit straight, that will be no longer once the European races roll around.
  • Its pretty clear there was no hoarding of money to develop a new car.
    Yeah this is what I really cannot understand. At the beginning of last season Minardi said they were going to go testing and inferred that it would be a lot more than what they had been doing in previous seasons. Instead they actually did LESS and the most intensive testing has been done in the last couple of months which is for NEXT year's car i would presume. So I was hoping like PT here that 'ok, they have'nt tested, quite a bit of sponsor money coming in cos the car is full up with them, perhaps they are hoarding the money to make a blinder of a car next year'...........I should have f***ing known......where the hell did the money go? My guess is that they seriously undersold those sponsor spaces so that the only money coming in was enough for 2004 only with no eye on the future! There was not much development work done compared with other teams either in 2004. So this HAS to be the case or else someone is running off with the money somewhere!

    Oh and before people bleat on about 'the space can only be sold for the amount it can be bought for ......blah blah blah, I'll agree. However I still say Mianrdi undersold it cos I have no faith at all that the commercial team for Minardi can do a decent job.......examples of going to far off lands and drumming up sponsor money in places like China etc has become fruitless. Now they are really in the crap cos being content with surviving at the back of the grid for these last few years has made them even less attractive to sponsors......better to have gone out in a blaze of glory than to wither away..........

    [Edited on 25/11/2004 by StoddieBasher]
  • Can't argue with that. I don't recall backpedalling. I'm talking about doing some R and D . Aer rules up in the air? Lets concentrate on electronics then, or gearbox or differential the list is endlesss.
  • And I agree with that. However, you do conceed that Stoddart never said what you stated that he said.
  • Im on your side this time Jello.. but theres a difference between making an inference and stating.

    The crux of it all is though... hoarding didnt occur. we have no cash for development or next years car...

    we have many sponsors each paying 20 quid... thats the crux of it all.
  • Might see if I can a motif on the car..........can't be that expensive!:P
  • ^ I'm sure Paul wouldn't go for "Stoddart is an idiot" now matter how much you paid him.
  • I dunno about that, I mean since 2001 he's been doing quite a good job of that one without a label on the car.
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