Former team owner Giancarlo Minardi has hit out at a select few teams who voted against Marussia’s plea to be able to compete this season with its 2014 car.
During a Strategy Group meeting last week, “three or four” teams voted against the proposal which would have seen Marussia return to the grid as Manor.
Whilst the outfit hasn’t let the decision ruin its plans altogether, it has dealt a serious blow to their efforts, and Minardi believes those who voted no, should take a look at themselves and the possible consequences it could have.
“[The decision was] absurd and unsportsmanlike behaviour,” the Italian wrote on his website. “[By] opposing, the [other] small teams hope to split up the [money] owed to Marussia, but perhaps they did not count to ten.
“Get rid of the two Cinderellas, Marussia and Caterham, and it means shortening the grid. Consequently, the back row [will now] be occupied by teams with far greater budgets and ambitions (see Force India itself, Sauber and Lotus), with commercial consequences and in terms of image.”
Minardi, who’s team was also a low-budget backmarker before it was bought out by Red Bull, acknowledges that such selfish decisions are not rare in F1. However he believes in the importance of small teams and has urged the teams to look at the long-term damage such a decision could do to the sport.
“This situation reminds me of the ’96-’97 seasons, when I defended very strongly the importance of small teams,” he explained.
“I argued that without teams participating with great passion but limited means – hoping, who knows, to find the right funds for the future – in the last row [on the grid] there would inevitably be big manufacturers.
“[That] situation has repeatedly occurred in the 2000s. The manufacturers are not waiting years to grow and achieve positive results; they have commercial and image objectives in the short [term] and tangible consequence of the choices in those years, was that year after year we have lost almost all of them.
“I hope that it is not the final decision and that there is room for reasoning; now as then, this sport needs all those [who] laboriously take part and hope to find the means for a more glorious future of the sport.”
