The famous horror movie tagline ominously stated, more than 20 years ago: "They were warned... They are doomed... And on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them." In Canada, on Friday, June 13th, Paul Stoddart assumed the role of Jason and showcased his own horror show, right in front of a speechless crowd of journalists. Thereafter known as the Suicide Bomber, the Australian confronted the establishment of Formula One and starred in one of the most dramatic weekends to take place off track. Atlas F1's Will Gray spent the weekend with Stoddart and brings the Behind the Scene featurette of the director's cut according to Stoddart. You'll wish it were only a nightmare...

It all started with a phone call. Sat in his office, a month before last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, Paul Stoddart was enraged. After fighting for two years to keep his sinking privateer Minardi team afloat, he believed he had been promised a cash windfall, a 'fighting fund' from the manufacturer-backed big boys. But that phone call changed everything.

It came from Sir Frank Williams, it plunged Stoddart's plans into disarray, and it sent him spiralling down a path he did not want to travel down but one which he had no choice but to take. Fast-forward four weeks, and that call had snowballed into one of the most sensational off-track Grand Prix weekends in recent memory, filled with intrigue, anger and suspense. And Stoddart kicked it all off on Friday 13th. Pure Hollywood.

"'Paul, sadly I have bad news'," Stoddart recalled what Williams had told him. "'Ron and I have lost our arbitration against Bernie, we are facing a huge legal bill, and so sadly I am withdrawing Williams support from the fighting fund - sorry'. Then he put the phone down. That is what tipped me over the edge - that one phone call. At that moment in time I lost all respect, now and forever, for Frank Williams. That was the phone call that began all of this."

Two weeks later, while the glitz and glamour of Formula One reached its climax in the harbourside principality of Monaco, Stoddart put on a brave face. But the affluent atmosphere that saw Jaguar displaying exquisite pink diamonds and Ferrari sponsors Vodafone enjoying glittering parties in the harbour, coupled with the victory of Juan Pablo Montoya for the Williams team, served to rub salt into his already painful wounds.

Mixing with the paddock regulars was Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, the sport's governing body, who had attended very few races during the season. He had a meeting to discuss the fighting fund situation, as well as the increasing pressure of the manufacturer-backed outfits, with Stoddart and fellow privateers Peter Sauber and Eddie Jordan.

Meanwhile Minardi, Formula One's tiniest minnows, did their best, with their motorhome facing the boats that continually bobbed in the harbour, food and wine flowing for important guests. But, although visually Minardi cut the mustard, sitting next to the big-budget Toyota team served only to constantly remind Stoddart of the battles he is facing fighting the big teams.

As the championship headed towards the half-way mark after Monaco, the four manufacturer-backed teams were fighting at the front, with McLaren-Mercedes leading Ferrari, Williams-BMW and Renault, while Minardi had not scored a single point. The gulf between the front and the back of the grid was about three seconds. And increasing.

Increasing, too, was Stoddart's frustration and he put into motion a last-ditch plan to convince his rivals he and fellow struggling team Eddie Jordan had the right to the money, half each of a $16 million windfall left over from moneys owed to the now defunct Arrows team. Stoddart needed it fast to prevent Minardi going the way of its potential saviours. Jordan was not in such a hurry, so Stoddart led.

The Australian team boss, who invested a great deal of his fortune from the European Aviation global airline business in Minardi in 2000 to pursue his dream of becoming a Formula One team owner, had had just about enough. His team could survive, he said, to the end of the year. But it might as well not bother to compete because there was no budget to improve at the rate of their rivals.

And so, when Friday, June 6th, came around and the Formula One Commission met to discuss the future, Stoddart felt he had to put up a fight. "Minardi and Jordan were contracted by the other eight teams on the 15th of January to provide a service," he said in Canada, explaining the two privateer teams' side of the bargain, for which they were due to be given $8 million (Dollars) each.

"That service was to maintain ten teams, thus avoiding the enormous cost of the other teams having to provide a third car and to maintain the integrity of the constructors' championship. Jordan and Minardi have performed that task. We have not been paid. It's as simple as that."

And so, when the Commission went to a vote on the new rule changes for Formula One, which were designed to introduce more parity into the cars but, Stoddart believed, would be another cost increase and another nail in Minardi's coffin, he kept his hand firmly down. No vote meant no unanimity. And no unanimity meant no go, no new rules, and no chance for a re-think... unless Stoddart was handed his fighting fund money.

"I never supported the changes," Stoddart explained on Friday in Canada, after his position had been announced on a morning press release. "It was part of a package - they supported the fighting fund, I supported the changes. The changes are against the smaller team, because it means a substantial complete change to the physical look of the car.

"The bodywork changes - which would have resulted in a very ugly car for next year with plenty of space for all of Ron's sponsors - will now no longer happen. And I'm glad that they won't, because they would have looked downright ugly. So now we will see the same cars next year, and so we will see what we were supposed to have - rules stability - no changes until 2005, all I've done is just reinforce that."

But the money was the real sticking point. It was not that he needed it immediately, but rather that if he had followed the pack and voted for the changes it would be an admission that, and an acceptance that, he would not receive a penny of the money he believed was due to him. It was a risky move, a last-gasp effort, and it earned him a new paddock nickname: 'The Suicide Bomber'. He knew that his trip to Canada, one week later, would be an explosive one.

"When I found out after Frank's phone call that it was abundantly clear the small teams were going to be giving and the big teams were going to be taking, I took the decision, with a heavy heart, to withdraw my support for the Formula One commission vote that would have put these things through irrevocably for next year," said Stoddart. "Once they did not have unanimous support I knew that that was going to break cover this week in Canada.

"I then found out that I was in the FIA team principals' press conference, and I thought it was far better to tell the story as it is, the whole truth - not bits and pieces of it - and if I do that then people can see why I withdrew my support. Otherwise it could have been very easy to look like Minardi was just being difficult. Minardi wasn't being difficult, but were being factually correct."

It was Friday the 13th, and as the rare rain pelted down on the subdued Montreal paddock, Stoddart may have thought twice about what he was going to do in that press conference had he remembered the banner headlines for the 1980 cinematic thriller bearing the name of the date in question. 'They were warned... they were doomed... and on Friday 13 nothing will save them,' the now-antique posters said. And so Stoddart's Friday 13th reality began.

Unbeknown to 'Suicide Bomber' Stoddart, the four other team principals due in the meeting - McLaren's Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, BAR-Honda boss David Richards and Jordan-Ford boss Eddie Jordan - were delayed by a meeting, to which Stoddart was not invited.

Thinking they were not planning to turn up, he had begun the press conference alone, with a cracking voice as the emotion of a lonely and chastened man flooded into the room. "I was nervous," he admitted on Sunday. "I felt very much alone and they made it very obvious I was alone, and it took a bit to get up there and do that, I can tell you.

"I don't know why I was nervous, but I was. I tried not to be, I tried to be precise and professional but I noticed at one point my hand was shaking when I picked up the water and it's not like me and I don't know why. I still don't know why, but I actually had quite unsteady hand. I suppose what I really felt bad about having to do it at all."

When the remaining four sauntered in late, sheepishly, they took up their positions - with Dennis to Stoddart's right, Williams to his left, Jordan right behind and Richards over his right-hand shoulder. It began calmly, controlled by the FIA question master Bob Constanduros, but soon descended into farce.

"This is not the forum and I just hope that Paul understands that I don't think it serves a function to get into some verbal game of tennis," said the McLaren-Mercedes team principal, as the press conference began before promptly throwing the verbal ball into the air and striking an ace. "This is a tough, competitive sport and if you can't take the heat, get out of the bloody kitchen," said Dennis. Wham! "There are no soup kitchens in Formula One," he continued. Whack! The game began.

"Talk is cheap and I am totally disillusioned with several people sitting around me," came the return from Stoddart, sitting alongside Dennis, staring out to the crowds of transfixed press as he and Dennis strode into battle while the rest of the astonished team bosses hid their amazement and tried to keep out of it as much as possible.

Accusations and allegations flew across the room as Bernie Ecclestone watched on and Jordan, whose support Stoddart says was "100 percent when I went to the press conference" but had since been altered by an apparent but unconfirmed pre-press conference deal, fiddled with his microphone, ripping it off its base in clear embarrassment as he wished he was a million miles away.

"I was very disappointed with Eddie Jordan today because he was clearly, clearly got to," Stoddart said immediately after the press conference on Friday. "It's fair to say that in Monaco, while we were still trying to keep this contained within the teams, he was more forceful than I was. It's not the same Eddie Jordan that was standing next to me in Monaco with Max Mosley and Peter Sauber and it's not the same Eddie Jordan that was standing next to me this morning."

The following day, he added: "I've heard rumours that he's done an engine deal, he's done this and he's done that, but you have to ask him what he's done, I just don't know. But there will have to be some serious reasons why he had such an about turn."

At the front of the stage, Dennis and Stoddart continued their tirade, interrupting each other, talking over each other's answers and responding to each other's comments without the need for questions from the astonished journalists. It was, in effect, an open team principals' meeting - but one non-present chief admitted: "You should see it when everyone is there - that was calm." As one BBC reporter said, it was a case of 'I'm a Formula One team boss, get me out of here!'

As he stood under an umbrella in the pouring rain immediately after the press conference, drawing on a cigarette and not even managing to raise a smile when it was suggested he should have one between each finger, a seething Stoddart said: "I could have taken it a lot further in there, but it's not the point to do it.

"I love the sport and I'm trying to protect ten teams, and I'm trying to make sure that we do not have the ludicrous situation where the Constructors' Championship is destroyed forthwith - to have non-point scoring cars in the race, what sort of a message would that send out? There was nothing that I said in there that I cannot prove, but I did resist the temptation of lowering down to his (Dennis') standard.

"Actually only once - when he virtually insinuated that I didn't know what I was talking about - did I respond in detail. I could have gone through every single thing he said in detail, and then people would have realised what I've come to realise, that Ron and Frank and people like them are a very, very arrogant, ignorant, egotistical bunch. And that is what makes Formula One a very, very sad place to be."

Stoddart, visibly fuming, immediately went on the record to openly insult Dennis and Williams. "I have no problem with what I've said being quoted," he confirmed. "It's my personal belief, and I'm entitled to my personal belief. Things couldn't get much more difficult - what is one to do? Wait until we're another Arrows or Prost?

"I passionately believe in Formula One, I believe in the integrity of the constructors' championship, and I believe that those 388 million people watching want to see ten teams on the grid, to see people that struggle, they want to see the underdogs, they want to see Ferraris, they want to see the McLarens and the Williams.

"But what I don't agree to is people who make agreements and then unilaterally deny they ever made them, put strings attached that were never there. You know Ron's comment that it was dependant on rules stability? Well, I'm sorry, but we haven't changed any rules. All Max has done is interpreted those rules, and what we've seen is a much better show for Formula One.

"That very same individual at the Imola team owners' meeting agreed that the rule changes were good and voted to keep them - so it's a little bit hypocritical that I have to be faced with individuals standing up there saying 'I've got more costs and this is bad.' I'm downright disgusted with the actions of certain team principals."

As Stoddart spoke out against his rivals after the press conference, Ecclestone, who had taken hold of a microphone at the end of the hour-long heated discussion but was not spotted before the room began to empty, reneged on his promise inside the hall to "tell the truth" and skulked back into his Formula One Management motorhome insisting the journalists had been listening to a bunch of lies.

"I wish he'd been handed the microphone," said a calmer Stoddart on the Sunday after the emotionally fuelled afternoon. "It was a crying shame, but it's probably better for certain individuals sitting up there that it didn't happen. It's probably better for the sport that it didn't happen too."

Prior to the meeting, Stoddart had made a last-gasp effort to stop himself from having to go through what he had just been through. He had circulated a document that prescribed to promise the moneys due in the 'Fighting Fund' to him and Jordan as agreed at the January 15th meeting.

"Commitments were made on the fifteenth of January this year, they were initiated by Ron Dennis, they were followed up and agreed by every single team principal, but many of them seem to have selective memory failure," said Stoddart on the Friday afternoon.

"There's not much that Ron was saying [in the press conference] that was actually factually correct, but the one thing he did say is that it was a package. And it was a package - my part of the package was to compete and complete [the 10-team grid], which I've done.

"The other part of the package was to agree to configuration changes, which I didn't think were good. That's a package, give and take. Their part of the package was to provide a fighting fund, and they then hijacked that and wanted everything that is wrong in Formula One fixed up in one document, which clearly was never going to happen.

"The net result of that is the small teams have given, and the big teams were not going to give, so therefore the net result is the small teams - or me anyway; the only one that's got balls enough to stand up for himself - have now withdrawn that support. And that's where it stands.

"In [the press conference], some truth was starting to come out. I did circulate a document, which Ron said was not a very good one. Well, that's because you need to keep things simple if you want these guys to sign them at a track. It didn't incorporate all things wrong in Formula One that Ron would like to see, but what it did do was tell the truth. It showed that there was a commitment to Jordan and Minardi.

"We had honoured our commitments, we had actually done everything the larger teams had asked us to do, and where were they now? We were coming up to the halfway point of the season and they were nowhere to be seen, squabbling among themselves, different issues coming up. Net result: big fat zero, no movement from them, expecting the little guys to just roll over. Well, this little guy ain't for rolling."

Stoddart's agreement, he says, had been signed by all but three of the Formula One team chiefs: Ferrari chief Jean Todt - which Stoddart says had given him a letter "that clearly says he supports Minardi [but] has issues with Jordan" because of their legal battle against Ferrari's sponsor Vodafone - and the two sitting either side of Stoddart in the press conference, Dennis and Williams.

Dennis had tried to keep the document, and those who were opposing it, silent. But that was not on Stoddart's 'tell-all' agenda. Dennis argued that Stoddart's financial calculations were wrong. But he retorted by stunningly revealing the exact details of what he was fighting for: $1.5 million for this, $7 million for that...

"It was good, wasn't it?" he said Stoddart, smiling as he recalled the argument which saw him and Dennis fighting over who had done their maths homework correctly while Ecclestone looked on as the bemused head teacher. "He had a little jib, it didn't work, he left it alone. Very wise move."

It was all there for everyone to hear, all written on one of the many documents in a three inch thick ring-bound folder that had sat in front of him in the press conference. "Obviously people saw those books that were sitting on the table with me," said Stoddart. "I'm glad that I didn't have the need to actually open them.

"Had anyone tried to degenerate that press conference to a low level I was ready, willing and able to demonstrate every point I made, and I'm very, very glad that I didn't have to do it. Why do you think nobody took issue with anything I said, or wouldn't take much issue?

"Ron once took issue about the charity thing so I reminded him of several occasions where Formula One was given charity... you noticed he didn't respond? Anyone asked themselves why? Because the next stage would have been the opening of the books."

At one point, Dennis, getting serious in a press conference that had become more like question time, put his reading glasses on. "I was a couple of times leaving a few pages open for him to glance across," joked Stoddart on the Sunday. "I tell you what was lucky - Ron Dennis sitting next to me. That was a stroke of luck.

"I'm not in this to make problems for Formula One but I disagree with what the others said about the venue was wrong - I think the venue was actually right. I think we gave the world's best and most exciting press conference they've ever had in Formula One. But where else could you ever have put all those team principals together?

"It was a stroke of luck that we've had almost the right forum in there and the fact that four of them didn't want to discuss the issues is their problem. If you're afraid of the truth, then - to use Ron Dennis's words - there's the door, you might as well go through it."

Stoddart denied having documents ready to "frame" his fellow team chiefs if he had to, and added: "I, like every other team owner who's in possession of the facts...the facts don't often come out. I think Ron and the other team owners were well aware what was in those books - that facts were contained to everything I was saying - and did not want it to come out, so therefore they didn't make counter allegations. A very, very wise move. I could have read two documents in there that would have destroyed two people's credibility."

Destroying any of his own remaining credibility, however, seemed to matter little to him. He had already lost all the links he had with the top team bosses and, when asked immediately after the press conference what he was planning to do next, he laughed dryly. "I think just mind my business and get on," he said.

"They didn't invite me to their meeting this morning, and perhaps they won't invite me to anymore now. I've been hung out to dry today, and it was done on purpose, but there you go. I've been set up - absolutely - I've been set up today, totally set up. But we are a fighting team. It's our twentieth year in competition, so Minardi will live on. But is there a place in medium term future for a team like Minardi? No.

"These people want their own little train set in their own little domain, and they don't want anybody that can't mix it with them at the top in their championship - that just became abundantly clear today. If you need any clearer signal of that, you only needed to look at the body language in that meeting. They'll have their manufacturers' series, but it'll be a sad, sad, sad day for Formula One when the private teams are gone.

"There were people who were not in that room today who are absolutely honorable people - people like [Jaguar chief] Tony Purnell, people like Peter Sauber, people like [Toyota boss] Ove Andersson - we have no issues with certain team principals. It's the old guard that is the problem, and it always has been, and it always will be.

"They won't be happy until they are racing themselves - when you see six red ones and six white ones and six silver ones that'll be the Formula One of the future. That's my own personal opinion, but what a sad, sad day that'll be."

Asked if he believed the team bosses want to "get rid" of him, he added: "I believe so. Probably because I'm not a member of 'the club', am I? I am somebody who doesn't quite fit. And because I tell it like it is and I won't be swayed when someone's trying to tell a pack of lies. They don't like honesty."

It was almost like the final cannon shot from the sinking Minardi ship. But if it was, it was clearly an accurate hit. Ecclestone's interest in the remarkable goings on was apparent by his unprecedented presence in the press conference itself. And the event, which totally shadowed all action on the track on the following day, did its job. Because, then, Bernie bought into the team.

Saturday had ironically dawned a much brighter day but there were still storm clouds at Minardi as, once again, Stoddart was left out of a team bosses meeting. By now, Toyota had become the only team Stoddart felt comfortable around, their amicable team chief Ove Andersson being uninvolved in his bitter financial battle because of the new team's ineligibility for the money over which he was arguing.

In the Piranha Club that is Formula One, Stoddart had become an outcast, and was forced to eek his information from wherever he could. One source was Andersson, himself a newcomer to the politics of Formula One, even if he had encountered plenty of it during his times battling Ferrari team principal Jean Todt when the pair were in world rallying. Andersson, like Stoddart, had been dismayed by the importance of politics in what is ostensibly meant to be a racing world.

But Andersson, who had fired an initial salvo to Stoddart when he arrived in Formula One and snapped up Minardi's chief designer Gustav Brunner, sent another warning on Saturday in Montreal. And as Stoddart hung on the line like bait waiting for the Piranhas to mull over his immediate fate, his paddock neighbour sent a stinging message to him from across the motorhome fence.

Asked if he thought Formula One could survive the loss of another team after seeing Prost and Arrows collapse last year, the Swede said: "I think so. Why not? Obviously it is no good, but if the business basis for running (the team) is not there then I don't see how it can be done. We would be willing to help with money provided it was like a loan or something but not charity.

"In my opinion it (the money) has never been promised in the way that it has been put forward. I have understood that it was discussed, there was a proposal made, and then everybody would have to agree on that and everybody didn't ever agree. It has never been promised, it has been a proposal subject to approval and this approval hasn't been coming forward from everybody.

"The question is whether the teams in the situation to race and have enough money to race should support the teams that cannot do it. This is a big question mark and I don't really know which way is the correct one because two people could start a Formula One team tomorrow and after three races have no money and then they go to the other teams and say we have no money so could you please help us. I think it is a very touchy situation."

In another bizarre twist to the tale, Ecclestone had met Stoddart on Saturday morning and handed him an offer. It was this offer he was discussing with the team bosses as Stoddart awaited his fate. Suddenly, Ecclestone appeared, strolling alongside Eddie Jordan making their way out of the meeting, which had taken place at the opposite end of the paddock to Minardi's nervously quaking epicenter.

The response to Atlas F1's questions had been carefully, and crucially orchestrated and when asked if he could say what had happened in the meeting, Ecclestone simply said: "You better ask Eddie." The cautious Irishman responded, asking: "Can I? Can I tell them, Bernie? It's alright to tell them?" And with a nod of approval, he revealed that Ecclestone had dipped into his own pocket to help Minardi out.

"We need to shut up all this rubbish and get on with the sport," Ecclestone explained in typical style after Jordan's surprisingly eloquent revelation. "We need to go racing. We are racers. We are not financiers, we are bloody racers."

The stream of team chiefs continued their fall-out from the meeting, with first Richards proclaiming "everybody is happy" and adding: "I think Paul will feel very pleased that it puts an end to all the wranglings that have been going on over the last few months." His lead wrangler, Dennis, simply said: "The money has come from the right place." Stoddart, travelling the opposite way down the pitlane asked what the news was...

As he returned from his meeting, he proudly revealed that Ecclestone had not handed out charity, something Dennis had critically said the Australian had been pleading for in the press conference, and rather that he "is my new partner." Reporters first treated his comment as a joke, typical of Stoddart, who can usually crack a laugh at the worst of times. But it soon became clear he was serious.

"Can we walk?" he asked as he headed off towards his hospitality area and the small group huddled around the purposefully forward moving Stoddart, some stumbling backwards, all with Dictaphones catching every word. As it moved from outside the Renault section it became increasingly bigger as the news, broken on Atlas F1, filtered through the media centre.

By the time the ever-expanding group was at the opposite end of the paddock, the wave of emotion and the drive of the flock made Stoddart overshoot his stop, forcing him to double back before throwing himself on one of the team's white plastic garden chairs and emitting a radiant grin. "I welcome my new business partner, Mr Bernard Charles Ecclestone, with open arms," Stoddart quipped before adding that it was currently a "handshake deal" that was good enough for him.

"It was Bernie's suggestion," he continued. "We discussed it this morning. He obviously has briefed the other team owners, as you're all aware, and yes I would say it was put together rather quickly. The amount of money involved is enough to ensure that I feel like the handcuffs and the lead chains were off and I can actually do something with the team.

"I think, to be honest, it's a passive investment and I'm just thankful that Bernie is supporting this sport that he actually built up. At the end of the day, if it weren't for Max and Bernie, frankly you wouldn't have this sport. If it was left for some of these other individuals to run, it would be in absolute chaos. I think Bernie is a genuine guy who doesn't want to see Formula One in any kind of crisis while he's at the helm, and I don't blame him for that one little bit."

"It's an interesting twist," smiled Dennis, speaking the following day. "I think it's a very elegant solution to a difficult situation. I'm delighted for both Paul and applaud Bernie managing to do one of those rare acts that you rarely see him do - put his hand in his pocket! But overall I think it's good for everybody.

"I don't think it was a particularly pleasant experience for anybody - the Friday press conference. It certainly wasn't for me. It's not in my character to stay silent when things are being said that I don't necessarily agree or believe to be the case, but I regret being sucked into it. I should have known better, but that's life, that's the way I am.

"I hope now that Bernie's actions can put behind us those issues. I think Bernie's actions are very much to try and settle an inflammatory element that occasionally occurs in Formula One. I don't want to get into details - I did that on Friday and paid the price, but I'm fairly sure that when the documentation is put in place it would take everything into account. I don't see it as a conflict of interest."

Back in the huddle around the garden table, Stoddart, asked if Minardi would race in 2004, said "[this deal] speaks for itself" before seeing fit to make the confirmation complete by adding: "We'll be here." And he then became caught up in the moment by claiming that his new shareholder is "an incredible sponsor-getter" and insisted: "This could be the turning point. You might see Minardi actually have the budget it's always dreamed about. It would only take one or two sponsors and the Ecclestone name is a brand in itself, particularly within Formula One.

"I think the association with Bernie can attract just a couple of bigger sponsors to allow us to have the budget to compete with our peers on a like for like level. And I'm not talking about hundreds of millions of dollars because Minardi delivers and will always deliver the best value for dollar in Formula One. We don't need hundreds of millions of dollars.

"We need several million dollars to develop the car with the team to progress up the grid. And there's no better story in Formula One than a Minardi moving up the grid - it's a real human story that people can relate to. There's a fabric in Formula One that encompasses the Michael Schumachers, even the Ron Dennises, down to the Paul Stoddarts and Minardis."

Stoddart's gleeful pleas, it was immediately rumoured, were already falling on deaf ears as claims surfaced that the investment, thought to be between $4 million (USD) to $6 million (USD), was already being lined up for sale to a group of Italians, possible linked to current owner Giancarlo Minardi and apparently involving Enrico Zanarini, the manager of former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine and current Jordan racer Giancarlo Fisichella.

Richards said as much immediately after the meeting and Williams, speaking later that afternoon, added: "He hasn't directly bought the team. Just don't worry about Bernie interfering in anything - he's got other fish to fry. The last time Bernie did Formula One it was with a BMW engine. He won in 1984 and by 1987 he kind of lost interest. I'm just joking to illustrate - he won't have any interest at all."

Stoddart, however, immediately rebuffed the idea as "not correct", insisted he is staying on, although if someone made him the right offer he may consider selling. But he added: "I think the events of this weekend are so significant. I think we can do it alone, I really do. I think we can build this team up to be a regular competitor in the midfield, which is what I was looking to do and never had the funds to do it.

"Any shareholder can sell their shareholding. But, there's nothing discussed with me and I don't believe that to be the game plan. What the game plan is, is to actually see Formula One has the stability of 10 teams and 10 competitive teams, which clearly was at risk before this happened this weekend. So it's fair to say that the winner is Formula One."

The winner, yes, but only after a few Tsunami waves had almost wrecked the fleet. Williams said the whole weekend had been "damaging" for the sport, especially as it had all been played out in front of an unsympathetic North American audience. Stoddart was confident he had not lost any friends - but that was more because he had few team principals he could count in that bracket beforehand.

"I am losing my voice," he remarked, as he sat down to reflect on the weekend on a rare moment of tranquillity in the sunshine before the race in Montreal. Sucking on another cigarette, he left the ash to burn as he broke off briefly for the odd television interview here and there, recounting the story more and more quickly each time he stood in front of the different cameras.

So, has he lost his reputation for good now? "I don't believe I have," he said. "I've alienated two people yesterday who have alienated me by dishonouring what they have given, both in handshake and private commitments.

"Way back in Melbourne, Ron had called me to his hotel room and said 'look, if you stay quiet in the press conference I'll make sure, and I've got Frank's word as well, that the fighting fund goes ahead.' That was Thursday the 6th of March, in Ron's hotel room, in the Crown Plaza in Melbourne.

"We went to the press conference and then on the Sunday I went to see Frank myself and actually stood in the pitlane with him in Melbourne, and he said 'Paul, I've spoken to Patrick, you can count on Williams's support, certainly our share of the Arrows monies. It's not the first time that the bigger teams have had to help the smaller ones, and it probably won't be the last' and we shook hands on that.

"At the April team owners' meeting, on April 6th I think in Imola, I actually asked each of the team principals on a one to one basis what's happening with the fighting fund, Minardi's getting desperate, and Ron in fairness said he wanted global issues sorted out but in the end he wouldn't stop it.

"Frank actually said unequivocally 'Paul, you know that Williams are supporting you and Eddie'. Now that's in front of all the team principals. Apart from Toyota, which clearly are out of this, the only one in fairness [who did not immediately agree] was David Richards, who said he'd need board approval. And everybody else did."

The turn-around that came with Williams's fateful phone call, and the veteran team boss's later refusal to be drawn into a discussion in the press conference, served to alter Stoddart's opinions of one of Stoddart's former heros and, with a heavy sadness, he admitted: "Frank's the one I'm really disappointed with. I used to look up to him.

"I mean, I know what Ron is, I don't respect him and he doesn't respect me, that is public knowledge. But with Frank, I did respect Frank. Ron and Frank completely destroyed me - they destabilised my sponsors, they destabilised my bankers.

"But from the rest, I actually feel general support. I mean... who remained cool, calm, collected and professional on Friday and who got agitated, fidgeted around in his chair, pushed his microphone over and couldn't ask questions? It speaks for itself, and I find myself not surprised with Eddie actually. It's quite sad.

"He's a loveable rouge, the Arthur Daley of Formula One, and you can't help but like the guy even when he screws you. He completely did an about turn in that [press conference]. He knew what was going to happen. He made a fool of himself looking incredibly uncomfortable when he was asked questions, and I don't think he's come out of this with much credibility. That's sad because he is actually a loveable guy."

Stoddart denied, as Williams had suggested, that the whole thing was a set-up, possibly orchestrated by the FIA in a bid to gain some political standing in the complicated saga with the breakaway-threatening Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC) manufacturers - Ferrari, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, BMW and Renault.

To many it had looked clear cut, even before Stoddart sent out the release that declared his intentions to oppose the rules. Once that was in the public domain, it was obvious what was set to happen. But, when asked if it was a long-term pre-planned confrontation, Stoddart said: "Not as much as you think, I think there's a lot more luck in that than you may imagine.

"(Frank) felt set up. I wished he sort of qualified that, because I'd liked to know who he was set up by. By me? No. I mean, I could say I felt set up by Frank. If Frank hadn't made that one phone call, this whole thing would never have happened.

"Was he set up by the FIA? No, and I have to say to me Max this year has displayed everything a real, genuine regulator should be - not be one-sided, not be swayed by the powerful over the weak and maintain an absolute belief in what is right for Formula One.

"I mean, press conferences - for as long as I've been in Formula One - have been on exactly the same time, the same format, and I thought - unless I got it horribly wrong and so was very much mistaken - that the press conferences were there to talk about the issues. Well this has clearly been the issue of the weekend.

"Was he set up by the other team principals? No. I think Frank sadly - and I still genuinely say sadly - I think Frank was sadly set up by his own actions. If you light the fuse, you shouldn't be surprised when the bomb goes off."

Then it was back to business. A quick plate of food, another chat to a couple of sponsors, and back to pit wall to do the job that he had joined Formula One to do in the first place - to go racing. And, with McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen starting from the pitlane, he knew exactly what his two cars, setting off from the back of the grid, were going to do.

"I'm not going to have a repeat of Barcelona where I was told to get out of the way. I am racing," said Stoddart, whose cars were also ahead of Raikkonen at the Spanish Grand Prix. "Formula One is not a soup kitchen, it is not a charity, on or off the track, I am racing those McLarens." His cars, of course, did not fend off Raikkonen, who went on to score a sixth-place finish while Jos Verstappen was last past the finish line, in 9th, as Justin Wilson retired, but that did not truly matter.

And, after it had all died down, on a warm Montreal race day evening, there was an air of calm in the Minardi area of the paddock. The rumours mattered little. What mattered, to Stoddart, was his ship was patched up, afloat and back under steam. Not a full head of steam, not by any means, but at least it had a bit more in reserve to help it get off the rocks. As for the future? he's not planning to answer the phone in a hurry - it could be, as the movie poster said, his worst nightmare.

Additional research and interviews prepared by David Cameron and Biranit Goren