Stoddart hoping for a solution

Paul Stoddart caused quite some discussion at a team bosses meeting on Sunday morning in France, after he announced that his two Minardi drivers would compete in the British Grand Prix without driver aids. This could give him cause to protest the race result on the grounds that other teams were using driver aids illegally. After the meeting, it appears Stoddart has backed down somewhat -- providing an agreeable compromise is found.

"It dominated the second half of the discussion," said Stoddart of his no driver aids intent. "If we can find an agreement over the next few days we can do the amendment to the 2003 regulations and it can be in place by Silverstone."

However, other previous agreements not being fulfilled, such as a cheaper engine supply and providing the 'fighting fund' is what caused Stoddart's action in the first place, so for the moment he's waiting to see if any new agreements will actually be implemented.

"I am hopeful because all the issues were discussed in detail and I think we can put all of this behind us," he said. "But I will reserve overall judgement, as I thought in the past that we may have had an agreement only to discover that we haven't."

McLaren boss Ron Dennis thinks Stoddart is trying to "destabilize the sport" and that there was unanimous agreement from the teams in regard to traction control and electronic systems. But Stoddart withdrew his support of the rule changes since then, so with there no longer being unanimous support, he believes he is within his rights to challenge teams using driver aids if Minardi do not.