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Stoddart to try Australian F1 hopefuls

1K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Ambrose_1 
#1 ·
10-12-2003


The man who gave Mark Webber his start in Formula One has today offered Australia's latest rising stars in international motor racing the ultimate incentive.
Paul Stoddart, the expatriate Australian businessman who owns the Minardi F1 team, has pledged to give Formula Three drivers Will Davison and Will Power a test in a Minardi next year.

Stoddart made the offer, conditional on the pair's continued progress in 2004, in Sydney this morning at a press conference also attended by the young drivers.

Davison and Power will each be fitted for a specially-moulded Minardi F1 seat in the team's garage at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit during the 2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix on March 4-7. The chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Mr Steven Wright, applauded Stoddart's generosity in making the offer to the two young drivers.

"Paul has done a lot for Formula One in the three years that he has owned Minardi, but this is something else again," Mr Wright said.

Stoddart said the test drives "will give the guys a taste of what a Formula One car is like to drive.

"We'll be watching their progress during 2004 and hopefully they can keep making good headway," Stoddart said.

"The taste we can give them through a test drive will not guarantee they get to F1, by any stretch of the imagination, but it should be very good experience for them.

"To get into F1 requires, apart from talent, enormous commitment and generally a lot of financial support because there are lots of drivers competing for just 20 spots ¬タモ and only three, four or perhaps five vacancies arise each year.

"Drivers from a lot of other countries get a lot of financial backing and I'm very much hoping that one day we'll see a young Australian driver get similar support from the Australian corporate sector.

"Mark Webber got there without much corporate support, comparatively, but he will probably be the last to do that.

"Minardi has a very proud tradition of introducing drivers to F1 who go on to great things ¬タモ at one point this year 40 per cent of the drivers on the grid had started out with Minardi, including (Spaniard) Fernando Alonso, who became F1's youngest winner at the Hungarian GP, lapping Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari.

"It's a very competitive business scoring a seat in one of the 20 cars on that grid, and lots of factors and forces come into play, but ¬タモ having helped Mark Webber get started, and enjoyed the best day of my life when he finished fifth on his debut in that unforgettable 2002 Australian GP in Melbourne ¬タモ I'd obviously love to see another Aussie come through and make it to F1."

Since Webber's debut F1 season with Minardi he has become a star with Jaguar Racing, scoring 17 of that team's 18 world championship points in the 2003 F1 world championship.

Davison, 21, from Melbourne, is a grandson of the late racing legend Lex Davison, who won four Australian GPs long before the event was a world championship race.

The young Davison scored his first international victory this year, winning a race in the prestigious British Formula Three Championship and finishing the series with another podium at the final round.

Will Power, 22, from Toowoomba in Queensland, also drove in the British Formula Three Championship this year, finishing second in one race.

Davison and Power are in negotiations regarding potential front-running drives in British F3 in 2004.
 
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#4 ·
i think its good,glad someone wants to see some ozzies trying to reach for F1,we need more ozzie F1 drivers just wish the other teams could see we (ozzies)have just as much potential as the rest of the world.

just look at webber he's a fine example of that.
 
#5 ·
Ambrose_1 said:
Going in to formula 1 with minardi wouldnt be a good choice in my eyes beause they are like 5 seconds behind the top running teams a lap so you wouldnt be able to show your true talent
Webber, Alonso, Fisicella, Trulli all started with Minardi, hasn't done them any harm. Wilson was also plucked from them. The advantage with driving a Minardi is that no one expects anything from you, so if you happen to run amongst the other cars, or pull off an amazing 5th place, people will think it's the driver. Plus it's the cheapest way into F1, and any seat in F1 is good. The front teams notice what hapens in the back teams, they scout for up and coming talent that way. It saves them making a bad investment in a new guy. Let the slower teams do the hard work for them.
 
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