Changes 'will help F1 minnows'

F1 bosses avoided a radical overhaul of the sport

The poorer teams on the Formula One grid will profit from the changes made to the sport, according to Minardi boss Paul Stoddart.

On Monday F1 bosses agreed to amend qualifying, the rule on team orders and the points system in an attempt to make it more exciting.

F1 rejects radical change

Another change is to allow teams to run an extra car and have extra time in practice at races if they restrict testing to no more than 10 days between 1 March and 1 November.

The scheme will go ahead if at least three teams agree it by 15 December.

Jordan, British American Racing and Sauber are all expected to do so - and Stoddart said he would use the scheme to raise much-needed funds for his team.

We're going to liven up both practice on Friday and qualifying on Saturday

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart

"We would like to run in a host nation one of that country's drivers," said the Australian team boss.

"If that driver had a sponsor it would be a straight commercial business. We need money and it's a good way of earning it.

"In the United States for example, I would have run both US drivers Townsend Bell and Bryan Herta on a Friday morning.

"The interest that would have created at the US Grand Prix would have directly translated on Friday and Saturday into gate attendance and interest."

Right spirit

F1 bosses had originally tabled plans for a more radical overhaul of the sport.

But proposals for drivers to swap teams during the season and for ballast to be added to cars corresponding to the amount of championship points scored were both rejected.

Stoddart, however, welcomed the rules that had been agreed.

The new rules explained

"I think the proposals are good for the sport," he added. "Certainly we're going to liven up both practice on Friday and qualifying on Saturday.

"F1 has made some very, very important decisions about its future. They have been done in the right spirit of promoting a great sport to be even greater."