Friday March 15th, 2002

By Timothy Collings

Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart was happy to learn on Thursday that the controversial Phoenix Finance team will not be lining up for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

But Australian Stoddart is wary of celebrating as Phoenix may yet rise from the ashes of the failed Prost team, which was run by four-times champion driver Frenchman Alain Prost and declared bankrupt at the end of January.

Stoddart said he had spent more than $350,000 in obtaining legal opinions to make certain he could protect the interests of Minardi after British farmer Charles Nickerson and Phoenix Holdings purchased some of Prost's assets for about $3.5 million.

"Scrutineering has now closed and I don't see a Phoenix rising anywhere - so I guess that righteousness has prevailed in the end. But it has been a hell of a fight," he said.

"In anything in law, there are always rights of appeal - not that there is anywhere I feel this can go now - so I have to be very careful what I say.

"But I can tell you that we have eight legal opinions, in English and French, all of which conclusively and without hesitation, qualification or any other riders whatsoever, categorically support the FIA's position. The Prost Grand Prix team and the name Prost was not part of any sale.

"No rights to enter the 2002 World Championship were transferred which leaves any buyer, Phoenix or otherwise, not able to compete in the 2002 Championship.

"In short, it is all over. There are not going to be any teams rising from the dead."

Revenue

Stoddart hinted that he believes Minardi would derive a much greater slice of the revenue from Formula One's television income if the Phoenix team was not admitted in place of Prost.

But he declined to make any figures public or comment on the secretive prize-money distribution in the sport. The TV revenue may be worth more than $5 million to the Italian-based team, according to some reports. Stoddart, who runs the team from his British headquarters, did confirm that he had lodged a spoiler bid to try to prevent anyone making a late, and potentially-damaging, purchase of Prost before the 2002 season.

The Phoenix outfit purchased assets, including two of last year's Prost cars, too late to pass scrutiny for taking part in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

But it flew the cars and several team personnel, mostly part of the engineering support supplied by Arrows team-owner Tom Walkinshaw's TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) company, to Malaysia in a vain bid to participate in Sunday's race at Sepang.

Spoiling Bid

While the team were flying out from London, following the cars' arrival on Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Tuesday, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), the sport's ruling body, said in a statement that Phoenix had not acquired an entry for the Championship among its Prost assets purchased from the French bankruptcy court.

The cars remained under guard in the customs area at the airport, only five kilometres away from the circuit, said one source. For Stoddart, this was joyous news.

"My bid was a spoiling move, but I did it for the right reasons. I think that what deserved to stay dead has done so and hopefully this mess is now behind us," he said.

Walkinshaw, who had been closely linked with Nickerson and the new team, made no comment on Thursday when he left the paddock after a meeting of team principals to discuss proposals for a new shape for Formula One in the future.

Stoddart said the pair sat together and shared a few jokes, but at the end of this affair, it seemed, only Stoddart was laughing.

Published at 02:17:17 GMT