SEPTEMBER 18, 2004

Minardi's Christmas sale

Paul Stoddart is preparing for a $5m sell-off of some of his Formula 1 assets at his English factory in Ledbury. The Australian aviation magnate has been an avid collector of Formula 1 cars and equipment for the last 10 years but has now become fed up with "falling over all the cars that are lying around" and has decided to sell half his collection and is planning to offload 40 Formula 1 cars at auction on November 18-19-20 in Ledbury. The cars will include around 20 Tyrrell chassis plus Brabhams, Benettons, Jordans, Arrows, Minards and, the star of the auction, the first BAR chassis. There will be around 3000 lots of engines, parts, memorabilia, clothing, overalls and other equipment.

Stoddart reckons the sale will net him $5m which will go towards the Minardi's team F1 budget.

Stoddart says he is not hugely worried about the demise of Cosworth as an engine supplieer as he is in a position to run his own engine programme as he did a few years ago, using old Cosworth engines. He has his own dynos and engine development staff on his books already.