15 replies to this topic

[Peter Perfect]

From an interview with Paul Stoddart on www.dailyf1.com

Q: (BAR Boss) Craig Pollock recently told us that you have to be a racer in some way or the other to gain respectability in the paddock. As the owner of an airline and the smallest team in Formula One - do you agree and do you feel you are accepted among the other team owners?

PS: Firstly I doubt that we are the smallest team. I'd say that we are not. We are the third smallest team because people tend to forget that the resources we have both in the UK and in Italy combined make us in square foot and in personnel not the smallest team. As far as the airline goes... that happens to be the business that made me a lot of money and made me able to go into Formula One, but I didn't do that just as being an ex-airline owner. I've started racing myself back in 1997 and ‘98 in Australia and in the last five years I've probably had more testing miles in Formula One cars than many testing drivers. So I didn't go into it without knowing all of the pit fools. This is actually my sixth season in the paddock.

If Minardi aren't the smallest team, who are?

[Senninha2000]

No idea!

My guess would probably be Prost and maybe Sauber or Arrows, but like I said, I have absolutely no idea

[Zawed]

Prost I think is the smallest team in F1. They have been steadily losing people...I don't think the mechanics are terribly endeared to Alain, after all they did go on strike for a day last year I think, over unpaid wages or something.

Arrows is related to TWR, so that might make the team quite big in terms of personell involved with the F1 effort. Sauber might be quite a small team, though maybe with higher quality and experienced people??

[The Soul Stealer]

I doubt he likes the idea of being the smallest team in F1, but if they aren't the smallest team then they must be the worst team to finish last with a smaller team ahead of them:confused:

[MinardiRules]

I think he was talking in terms of the number of personnel.

My guess is Prost would be the smallest there. But I still think they are the smallest in budget - or at least they were until Stoddard stepped in.

if they aren't the smallest team then they must be the worst team to finish last with a smaller team ahead of them

Fair point, but remember that they didn't have a car or engine just six weeks ahead of Melbourne, so they haven't done too badly considering their performance by the end of the season. I'd expect them to get a point next season - provided they manage to get a good driver again.

FORZA MINARDI!!

[The Soul Stealer]

Fair point, but remember that they didn't have a car or engine just six weeks ahead of Melbourne, so they haven't done too badly considering their performance by the end of the season

I'm in no way taking away from them; it is a credit to them that the team has stayed in the sport year in year out even though they don't have the goods to compete:up:

[MortenF1]

Actually, Jordan is a pretty small team too. Atleast in terms of personell employed, 'cause I think the staff only counts 220-30 people.

[Ross Stonefeld]

TWR I guess is huge, but the Arrows side is supposed to be pretty slim

[sennadog93]

Depends how you measure it. Prost and Sauber may be smaller in physical terms..

[king_crud]

Maybe he's talking about height of staff as a size refernce. Jordan & BAR would be the smallest teams due thier Honda staff, asians being shorter than westerners and all.

[taran]

The number of staff for each team at the start of the 2001 season:

1 ) Ferrari 681
2 ) Toyota 490
3 ) McLaren 450
4 ) Williams 380
5 ) Benetton 336
6 ) BAR 321
7 ) Jaguar 320
8 ) Arrows 310
9 ) Sauber 260
10 ) Jordan 240
11 ) Prost 235
12 ) Minardi 160


This Minardi total included his European F1 squad as Minardi had approximately 110 team members. Of these teams, Renaulton and Jaguar have been quietly and not so quietly been adding to their staff while Prost and BAR have been shedding staff. Nothing has been said in the press about a furious effort by European Minardi to add 80+ members to his team....

So I am afraid Stoddard either does not know what he's talking about (not unfamiliar amongst teammanagers, Pollock actually believed his pointless debut was the best ever, apparently he had never heard of Wolf, Ligier or even Jordan) or he has been smoking the same stuff that made him think Asiatech would actually allow him to progress up the field.

[MinardiRules]

Maybe he was counting his airline staff as well??

[cygnus]

Uhh, what magic hat did you pull those numbers from, taran? Craig Pollack said he had 450 people this year on the payroll for the race team .. Makes me wonder how ya 'guessed' those other ones.

[kodandaram]

WEll if you mean floorspace and staff then i guess you could refer to F1 racing mag's preview of 2001 with a detailed description of every team.If you want i can post the figures in about half an hour.

[KenC]

Just to show how quickly things change, I have a vague recollection that in 1998, there was a story on Minardi in F1 Racing magazine. In the story, it was reported that there were something like 65 employees in the team!

[taran]

Sorry Cygnus, I should have revealed my sources ;) .
My bad:blush:

Those figures are from bernie's beloved Formula 1 Magazine.

Just to show what kind of change in numbers can happen in two seasons, here are the numbers from the start of the 1999 season, supplied by the authoritive German magazine sportauto:

1 ) Ferrari 450 (not including engine department)
2 ) McLaren 380
3 ) Benetton 320
4) Williams 300
5 ) Prost 225
6 ) Stewart 220
7 ) BAR 202
8 ) Sauber 185
9 ) Arrows 178
10) Jordan 165
11) Minardi 110

These team facts are usually readily available in any seasonal preview or review, so how come all you fans are so ignorant?