Stoddart fears the 'piranhas' will destroy Formula One

There was a time when new team owners in Formula One were greeted with the words "Welcome to the Piranha Club".

But these are troubled times in a sport rent by unprecedented political unrest. Now there is no welcome and the more voracious fish in the pool stand accused of trying to consume the smaller ones.

Earlier in the season, after a lengthy battle, the Minardi team's owner, Paul Stoddart, was awarded the defunct Prost team's share of lucrative television income. But other team owners, Ron Dennis (McLaren), Sir Frank Williams (Williams), David Richards (BAR) and Eddie Jordan (Jordan), are taking their claim to the money to the International Chamber of Commerce. Arguably, this amounts to $850,000 (£545,000) apiece. Small beer to most by Formula One standards, but a matter of life and death to the Melbourne-born Stoddart, whose enterprise is fuelled primarily by an intense passion for the sport.

"I will turn my back on Formula One if this travesty of injustice [sic] is allowed to proceed," said Stoddart, who claims he cannot afford either the time or the money to fight the case. "At this time, with all the problems Formula One really does have, for this to happen for me is nothing short of self-destruction. In the last 12 months we've been through so many problems, and we've lost two teams. Now we are going to lose three. Maybe there's another one that's not so steady as well. Do they really want eight teams in Melbourne next year?"

Stoddart believes that the timing of the action could not be more damaging for the sport. "It's bad enough having to deal with the problems I have had to deal with, but when you get knives in your back from your co-team principals, I'm not interested," he continued. "Do I want to be involved in a sport with such individuals in it? I'm not sure that I do."

In the maelstrom that has been generated by falling television audiences (and hence revenue), itself a product of Ferrari's season of total dominance, Stoddart believes the major players have a hidden agenda. "One would have to ask the question – is this not the manufacturers trying to sort their own series out by pushing all the small teams out?"

Earlier this year the manufacturers formed the breakaway Grand Prix World Championship which is intended to rival the existing FIA Formula One World Championship in 2008 upon expiration of the current Concorde Agreement by which the sport is run. Dennis, however, denies that the big teams seek to consume Minardi, and insists that the money itself is unimportant. He says he is merely seeking clarification of the situation for the future.

Traditionally, the small teams exist in the lower strata as a means of bringing in new drivers who can then be poached by the major players. Without teams such as Minardi that would no longer be possible, and the stakes are so high now that the big teams are unlikely to take risks on untried drivers.