OCTOBER 3, 2006

Minardi moving on up

Although Paul Stoddart still owns the rights to the name Minardi F1, Giancarlo Minardi is moving back up the motor racing ladder and has just merged its Euro 3000 operation with the Piquet Sports GP2 team, which was always a vehicle for Nelson Piquet Jr and is now no longer needed as Piquet has got himself a test drive in F1 with Renault. Thus Minardi is expected to be the name used for the team next year. Minardi cannot go back into F1 with the name unless a deal can be struck to buy the rights of the brand back from Stoddart.