NOVEMBER 2, 2006

Stoddart 90% certain to go to Champ Car

The Minardi team is almost certain to enter Champ Cars next year with Paul Stoddart planning to make an announcement within the next 10 days. We understand that there are still three options available to the team, all of which will involve acquiring current teams. Stoddart is not giving anything away at the moment but says that it will probably be an Indianapolis-based team. Stoddart says that there are three drivers in the frame, all of them ex-Minardi F1.

"And Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso are not on the list!" he says.

Nor, for that matter, is Robert Doornbos who seems more and more likely to be sliding into a Scuderia Toro Rosso drive next year, alongside Tonio Liuzzi. If that happens Scott Speed is going to be looking for work although it is possible that Red Bull will help out its long-time protege by funding a ride in America, perhaps alongside Neel Jani at PKV Racing.

The Minardi name will thus be appearing in both GP2 and Champ Car as Giancarlo Minardi owns the right to use the name in association with an Italian company and Stoddart owns the right to use the name in relation to a British-based company.

Stoddart is still working on a book about his time in F1 but says that the story will not come out until the autumn of 2007.