Motorsport: Stoddart keen for F1 comeback

LONDON - Former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who sold his Formula One motor racing team to Red Bull last year, wants to make a comeback and has submitted an entry for the 2008 championship.

"I've lodged myself an entry as European Minardi F1 team Limited," said the Australian aviation entrepreneur.

Austrian energy drink billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, whose Red Bull company already had a team before he bought out Stoddart, has relaunched Minardi as Scuderia Toro Rosso.

But Stoddart said he retained the rights to the Minardi name as well as the 2004-specification PS04B cars, having sold last year's PS05 and the Faenza factory in Italy to Red Bull.

The 2002 specification Arrows cars he sold to new entrants Super Aguri have been more competitive than expected with a Honda V8 in the back and Stoddart said the old Cosworth-powered PS04s could be updated.

"We've got the cars we ran in Melbourne last year, we've got the team and we've got the facility," said Stoddart, whose team would be based at his Ledbury premises in England.

"We'll see what happens ... it might not happen but I miss F1 too badly at the moment," he added. "I might not get a slot but it will be interesting to see who does.

"We are in a better position than anyone, other than a current F1 team, to compete."

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) has said all entries for championship in 2008, the season after the sport's current commercial agreement expires, must be submitted by March 31. The 11 teams in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix have already submitted applications and Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone estimates room for a maximum of 12.

More than that are expected to apply. FIA President Max Mosley said in January he believed three or four new teams were interested if costs were significantly reduced.

The governing FIA wants to ensure smaller independent teams can compete with the manufacturers that dominate the sport and has drafted regulations to assist them.

A return for Stoddart, whose new Australian business airline Ozjet recently suspended its flights after less than four months in the air, would be ironic under those conditions.

As a team boss, he frequently called for Mosley to resign.

- REUTERS