OCTOBER 13, 1997

...but Minardi gets Ford

GIANCARLO MINARDI has secured a supply of customer Ford V10 engines for next season. These will be prepared for Minardi by Cosworth Racing in Northampton and are expected to be of a similar specification to those which will be used by Tyrrell. The announcement means that Brian Hart will not be involved in F1 next year with an engine carrying his own name. Hart does not seem to be too worried about the future but will not confirm that he has worked out a deal with Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw for an involvement with the team next year. Hart has missed three or the last five Grands Prix working on his new V10 and we expect that this will appear in the back of the 1998 Arrows although it will almost certainly be badged by a major manufacturer. Minardi is a longtime Ford customer, having used Cosworth engines in 1985, between 1988-90 and between 1993-96. Stewart remains Ford's only factory F1 team and will continue to have exclusive use of the new Ford V10 engines which are expected to appear next year.

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