MARCH 23, 2005

Making Minardi go quicker

It is fair to say that this year the Minardi team's primary aim has not been on the race track, as the team has battled with the FIA over the rules. This is not about Minardi alone but with an old car the team's hopes in the early races were not high.

It is fair to say that this year the Minardi team's primary aim has not been on the race track, as the team has battled with the FIA over the rules. This is not about Minardi alone but with an old car the team's hopes in the early races were not high. The arrival of the PS05 is intended to vault the team forwards and Paul Stoddart hopes that it will put his team ahead of the Jordans. Going beyond that is going to be tough because the gap to the other eight teams is significant.

The PS05 should be a big step forward however as the team has not had a completely new car since 2002. It has been in development for a long period of time because the team has not had the money to do anything else. The other important point is that it will be a car which has been designed for the engine it will be using as opposed to being converted from a car that used a different engine. Paul Stoddart's desire is to beat Jordan and if possible to pick up points when others fail. In Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher he has one of the best Minardi driver line-ups in years. A change of car will of course open up the strategic possibilities in the races because tank-size is an important issue, particularly when the tyres have to go the distance in races and overtaking is tough. Money remains a problem but as always in F1 there is still the possibility that a smaller team can make an impression using brains rather than money. It is harder these days to challenge the big combines but one can make an impression in the midfield as Sauber has shown.