Verstappen's first test: on Avons
It is only logical that this did not alleviate Minardi's development process. Minardi eventually signed a contract with Bridgestone and the first shake down of the 2003 contender took place at Fiorano. Unfortunately the new car was still subject to various teething problems not allowing for an in depth test. Nevertheless an 11th spot at the Australian GP was a reasonable start to the season, however nothing like the triumph the team had enjoyed at the previous edition of the event. Justin Wilson, however performed a magnificent start finding himself in the top ten of the grid within a few laps.
" The PS03 in its pre-Monaco livery
During the advent of the Iraq conflict the Minardi team had "Malaysia for peace" logos on their side pods during the Malaysian GP which caused lots of upheaval. Should an F1 team carry a political message? As a result Paul Stoddart received some nasty messages from people who were in favour of the conflict. Another episode (however good the intentions) that the team could have done without that year.
.At a soaking wet Brazilian GP Minardi seemed to be within reach of points or even the podium (the race was won by Fisichella who throughout the season never was much faster than the Minardis) but these hopes were nullified when Jos Verstappen spun into the gravel trap in 6th position only a few laps before the end of the race.
" Verstappen and Wilson
As the season progressed rumours gained momentum that Minardi received no money from the Gazprom stickers on their cars. Gazprom's protege Sergeij Zlobin had not been present at the launch in Melbourne and Gazprom officials never were amongst the guests in the paddock. It was more or less made official as the Gazprom stickers were removed after the Spanish GP. Minardi had lost its main sponsor which launched the team into an uncertain future. To make matters worse Jos Verstappen started to become impatient with the way things improved in Faenza. He blatantly called Matteo Bobbi's Friday afternoon sessions at Imola a waste of time and resources, forgetting that Bobbi, just like himself and Wilson had paid for his track time. To compensate for the loss of the Russian sponsorship Verstappen's sponsor Trust received more exposure on the car's side pods, reportedly for just a small increase in sponsorship.
" The new livery with bigger Trust logos
Within the F1 fraternity discontent had been growing all year over the way F1 was run by Bernie Ecclestone. The big teams, most notably Williams and McLaren, objected to the notion that smaller teams such as Minardi should get a larger stake in TV revenues known as the 'fighting fund'. It all climaxed at the Canadian GP press conference when Paul Stoddart, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and Eddie Jordan fought out a war of words. Ron Dennis told Paul Stoddart "F1 is not a soup kitchen, if you can't stand the heat, get out". Minardi seemed to be on the brink. Suddenly however Bernie Ecclestone stepped in and vowed to bail out Minardi if this should be necessary. Paul Stoddart appeared to have outsmarted the big guys.
" Stoddart: A fighter
While performance didn't really improve all year Jos Verstappen managed to come up with a small sensation. He came in first at the Friday qualifying session at Magny Cours. The track was damp at the start of the season but had consistently dried up making it almost dry when the Minardi duo went out. Justin Wilson had come in second but was disqualified because of a too light car. In spite of that it was indeed a sensational result: the first time a Minardi was fastest in a Friday session.
Mechanics celebrating Verstappen's "pole"
The rest of the season was less sensational and it was soon clear that Minardi did not have the means to close the gap to the rest of the field. Because he had shown to be worth a seat in a better car, Justin Wilson was promoted to Jaguar replacing crash kid Antonio Pizzonia from the German GP onwards. Minardi replaced him with Danish driver Nicolas Kiesa who would stay for the rest of the season.
At the end of the season both Verstappen and his quasi manager Michel Perridon (Trust's CEO) decided that they were not going to stay with the Faenza based lions. Verstappen vowed to move on to a better team or quit F1 altogether while Perridon told the Dutch press "I don't want to look like a dick anymore by sponsoring Minardi". Of course these quotes deeply disappointed Minardi fans all around the world. It is quite ironic that Verstappen would indeed end up watching F1 from his lazy chair at home as no other team was interested in his services while Perridon was lured into a deal with Jordan a team that was bound to do little better (if not worse) than Minardi in 2004.
Justin Wilson at Monaco
Minardi however managed to leave all negative aspects of the 2003 season behind and find a new partner in the ruins of the Dutch episode. Ruud Wildschut, CEO of Wilux (a company that had joined Minardi together with Verstappen) was able to see Minardi's assets and decided to play a major role in the team's future as he was set to become its new main sponsor.
In addition to that Minardi bought some of the remains of the Arrows factory. That team had gone bankrupt in 2003 and left a wealth in spares and F1 components. Minardi also held a comparative test session to establish differences between their car (PS03) and the Arrows (A23) which had used a similar engine. The Rinland designed Arrows had some aerodynamic features that seemed suitable to improve the Minardi.
Shortly after the last race in Japan, Minardi announced its drivers for the 2004 season: Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner. Minardi had tested many up and coming drivers such as India's Narain Karthikeyan, Heikki Kovalainen from Finland and Norbert Siedler from Austria but came to the conclusion that Bruni and Baumgartner were the best choice, all options considered. Bruni managed to impress by outpacing both of Minardi's regular drivers during the Friday test sessions. Baumgartner had already made his debut with Jordan by replacing Ralph Firman for two races.
The 2003 season started with great expectations that couldn't be fulfilled for various reasons, most of them beyond the team's sphere of influence. However Minardi fans were used to such roller coaster rides and continued to look into the future with optimism.
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