Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has asked that his team be exempted from the impending rule changes in Fo🌺rmula One, following Ford's withdrawal bombshell last week.

The Australian has asked the other nine teams to grant him a dispensation to continue running the current Mi🦄nardi chassis-engine combination should no buyer be found for the Ford-owned Cosworth engine concern which, along with Jaguar Racing, was put up for sale by the Blue Oval in the build-up to this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. Although Stoddart has said that Minardi could, if pushed, revert to three-﷽year old engines in 2005, Cosworth's demise could potentially leave both the Anglo-Italian team and rival Jordan without motive power next season.

"It does leave a big question mark over engines and, indeed, over Jaguar," Stoddart told Reuters in Shanghai, "I'd like to think that Cosworth will find an owner - and I think it will - and I'd like to think that I'd be running♈ with Cosworth engines [in 2005].

"But [the call for exemption] is a case of force majeure, because we are not talking money. We are talking about whether we have 💦an engine supply or not next year."

Stoddart said that, in particular, he feared that there would not be enough time to re-design the already delayed 2005 Minardi to accept another engine for next season. The car has already started to take life, designed aro꧅und the Cosworth units 🐽that Stoddart agreed a deal on earlier this month.

"My request is to say 'look, there is a serious situation' - and this is a crisis, whether people want to admit it or not," he continued, "So take Minardi out of the equation - and we're not viewed as a threat to anyone [on the track] - and let us run to the 2004 regulations. We'd run with the existing engine that we've got and we'd be c൲ompetitive, but not enough to be a threat. The net result is that we'd have a transitionary year that would allow them to focus on finding an engine for Jordan - and finding a solution for Jaguar and Cosworth."

Stoddart said that, despite past confronta𒈔tions, some teams had already been suppꩵortive of his request.

"I hop🍸e they all can agree. Fr🍬ank [Williams] was very supportive, as was David Richards, Tony [Purnell] and Eddie [Jordan]," he said, "I think it's fair to say Toyota's on side too. You just need everybody, that's all."