JUNE 28, 2002

Minardi moving ahead and looking to 2003

MINARDI is now confident that it will get to the end of the current season and so the team's focus has switched to finding a good package for the 2003 season. We understand that the team is planning to move away from a free engine supply (Asiatech seem to want to be paid for its engines in 2003 anyhow) and there is believed to be a deal on the table from Cosworth Racing for a supply of the V10s which are currently being used by Jaguar and Arrows. This will mean that the team has to find $15m more than it has for this season. Money is hard to find and several teams are known to be seriously worried about the future - although of course they are saying nothing in public.