Visiting Melbourne to oversee his Minardi 2-seater cars in action at the upcoming Australian GP, former team owner Paul Stoddart has all but ruled out making a bid to return to the F1 grid for the 2011 season.
At the time entries opened, I didn’t put in a bid, but you never say never. I’ll watch and wait," he told The Herald Sun.
"Anyway, at the moment I wouldn’t have the time. I have a very successful business in the US, doing executive and VIP conversions on aircraft like Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s."
During his interview, Stoddart also waded into the debate regarding the lack of on-track action at the season-opening Bahrain GP, which he described as “drop-dead boring”.
"I think it would be very easy to fix it up. They just need to take the [carbon] brakes off and leave it up to the teams,” he said.
Stoddart also called for the ban on mid-race refuelling to be lifted, and suggested that less-durable tyres would also spice up the show.
Under the current guidelines, he felt, some circuits would provide limited on-track action – although he did add that Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit would not fall into that category.
I’d probably argue that Valencia has been boring enough to begin with, and we’d certainly agree with Stodd’s prophecy of doom regarding that circuit!
[Images via The Cahier Archive]
Richard Bailey
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