Paul Stoddart has gelled in well into the closely knit fraternity of Formula One team owners, since he saved the Minardi team from liquidating a little over a year ago. Now in his second season as Minardi boss, Stoddart seems to be in the limelight no matter what happens on track or in the paddock. Atlas F1's Roger Horton talked to the outspoken Australian during the Malaysian Grand Prix - a weekend where Stoddart was once again a major player in the wheeling and dealing that is Formula One

It's early evening in the post race Malaysian paddock. The oppressive tropical heat is giving way at last to the more tolerable temperatures of the early evening, and the teams' personnel and their guests are heading for the exits. For most the immediate future is a fourteen hour flight back to Europe and home, but for all, it's only the scenery that will change, not the eighteen hour days and a punishing work schedule that will stretch everyone's stamina to the limit.

In the Minardi hospitality area, their high-profile but seemingly inexhaustible Australian team owner Paul Stoddart is still at work, talking to the last remaining guests, fielding journalist questions, and generally being the mouthpiece for the KL Minardi Asiatech outfit that has just endured a disappointing day at the team's 'home' event, with both cars failing to make it to the finishing line. It's his first real 'defeat' for a while, but he was able to take it in his stride.

Over the past three weeks, Stoddart has been on a roller coaster ride of activity. From the high of being invited onto the Australian Podium to celebrate his team's outstanding fifth place finish, to the low of being involved in the constantly developing story that has been Phoenix Finances' attempt to buy and resuscitate the assets of the liquidated Prost GP team, and take their place on the grid. In Malaysia, like every other team boss, he was involved in a constant round of negotiations preparing for a World Council meeting that will shape the future of the sport for many years to come.

"I have probably had just one or two days proper sleep since I left the UK, and I know that I can't keep going on like this," Stoddart says somewhat wearily. "We had to make damn sure that we that we gave Australia and Malaysia, our two prime markets, 110 percent effort, but no, I am not going to be able to keep this pace up forever, nobody could."

Undoubtedly, the Melbourne result was a huge lift for all of the team and Stoddart was keen to share around the credit. "We have a good, highly motivated bunch of guys that got their just reward in Melbourne. Never mind Mark (Webber) and I, we got the cameras, and yes I cried and yes I was proud. But I was just as proud when I walked through that garage and saw thirty or forty guys bawling their eyes out with pride and hugging each other. That's what Formula One should be about, that's the Formula One that I love, and that's what keeps me going."

Whilst there may be some in the paddock who question Stoddart's judgement on occasions, no one questions his straightforward enthusiasm and his passion as a racer. Even down at the sharp end of the pitlane, where the independent team bosses are rich and powerful, they remember their own early days and he has earned their grudging respect.

By Malaysia, Stoddart, still basking in his team's Australian 'victory', was also able to claim yet another win, this time on behalf of 'righteousness,' as largely as a result of his efforts the Phoenix bid crumbled. He had successfully fought for what he believed was in Formula One's best interest and he had prevailed.

"You will probably hear denials, I don't know what else you are going to hear, but if anyone wants to see the truth I have a rather large file here which I'm quite happy to share later on," Stoddart said in the FIA media conference on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix when he went public on his effort to stop the proposed bid by Phoenix to enter F1 by reportedly purchasing the F1 rights held by Prost.

"It's wrong for Formula One, it's wrong for the creditors, it's wrong for the teams," he continued. "I don't know how these guys (the other team owners) feel but, as far as I'm concerned, I valued my entry at $25-30 million, if this goes ahead that's just been wiped out and you've probably taken $300 million off this pitlane today. Formula One has been through enough, there's a lot of sponsors that were here last year, they're not here this year, we needed a period of stability, common sense and unity. What have we got? Well, you tell me."

Stoddart's outspoken stand on the Phoenix issue took many in the paddock by surprise, but it is a measure of his growing stature in the sport that some of the other team owners did express strong private support for his stand. Like everything Stoddart has done since his arrival on the F1 scene, he crusaded on the issue with passion and at a personal cost that has run (so far) into the hundred of thousands of dollars.

By Sunday night in Malaysia he was taking a more sanguine view about the issue, believing that it would satisfactorily work its way out through the courts, and he would soon be able to get back to his first love, which is working with his team on making his cars go faster and finish more races.

Apart from the oppressive tropical heat, the major topic of paddock interest in Malaysia had moved past the Phoenix story and on to the debate concerning the new sporting regulations that were due for discussion at a meeting of the World Council on March 19th in Paris. There were a number of official meetings of team owners, and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was very much in evidence moving between the various garages and no doubt wheeling and dealing in the way he has done for over twenty years.

Everywhere you went in the Paddock you seemed to come upon a couple of heavy hitters having whispered conversations as the negotiations ebbed and flowed. Alliances were being forged and broken, trade offs being made and remade. It was all good fun to watch, and at times it was possible to forget there was a race on at all.

These discussions were being portrayed as being a battle between the 'haves' - which are teams either owned or supported by the auto manufactures - and the rest, which although they may boast budgets in the 100 million range are seen in F1-speak as being the 'have nots'.

Stoddart, of course, is firmly in the 'have nots' camp and admits he will be amongst the team owners backing FIA President Max Mosley's call for changes in the sporting regulations that would force the manufactures to supply engines to more than one team, and other changes that will cut cost, although he doesn't support the move to axe running on Fridays.

To get an idea of just what would it do for Minardi's fortunes if, for instance, either Mercedes or BMW were forced to supply a second team you only have to look at what Ford power has achieved for Arrows in pure performance terms. Last year, the leading Arrows driven by Jos Verstappen and powered by Asiatech was eighteenth on the grid in Sepang. With Ford power this year Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified in eleventh position and the German recorded the eighth fastest race lap.

Privately some at Minardi think that with a really good engine they could well sort out a good few more teams and accelerate the Australian's long-term goals of moving Minardi up the grid. Looking forward to the Paris meeting, Stoddart summed up his thoughts by admitting that he could well be one of the major beneficiaries of the changes, but was not yet prepared to count any chickens.

"In the end it's all down to money and power," he explains. "We are lacking the money, the budget, to move to the next league. It's my job to make sure we have it for next year - whether it comes from changes in the engine regulations that happen to favour me, or whether it happens because I can get a few more sponsors to come on board. This has, and always has been, a five-year plan.

"Year one, compete with dignity and professionalism, and I don't think anybody would say we didn't do that. Year two, get a couple of points and get off the bottom, and it's only race two and we have achieved that. Year three, I want to get established as a mid field team. So, so far so good, but it's Formula One and anything can happen, but so far I'm pretty happy."

Indeed he was pretty happy as he prepared to leave Malaysia. But next stop was Paris and what promises to be an interesting few days of yet more feverish off track action. A good outcome in Paris could yet be Paul Stoddart's biggest ever win.