Caterham F1 team 2014

[Jonnycraig]

Wow... . The fibres of the carbon are just falling apart. Looks like they are stretching useage of the parts way beyond what they are designed to.

I dearly hope they have replacement parts in place for Austin; no way they'll get through scrutineering with that.

Seems a storm in a teacup to me. The teams obviously can't take an autoclave and bagging materials to knock up preimpregnated resin cf at a race weekend so they work with what they have. It doesn't look as nice, but is perfectly safe. Lest we forget the car then ran through practice, qualifying and the race before it was retired. The weekend after Bianchi's crash I don't believe for a second that Caterham would've let the car go out when unsafe.

Further to that, it was reported that teams couldn't bring spare parts direct to Russia due to customs issues so had to make do with what they took to Suzuka and Kobayashi made a good job of working through the spare parts bin in practice there.

[thedutchguy]

I didn't have a high regard for Christian Albers as a driver, but as a former teammanager this is even worse.......i know he's been replaced but there were as usual big words and not even the tiniest result.......except for endangering your drivers?

From what I've heard in the Dutch press, Albers quit as soon as it became clear that the new owners were not actually going to invest in the team. He's only been involved for about two months (including the summer break) and seems to have been used as the face of Colles' operation, rather then being the decision maker himself. Like all of us here I don't know the exact details, but I don't think Albers is to blame for the current mess.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

CATERHAM F1 TEAM STATEMENT

22 October 2014

On 29 June 2014, Caterham Enterprises Ltd, Caterham (UK) Ltd and Sheikh Mohamed Nasarudin (Seller) and their shareholders Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Bin Meranun entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Engavest SA (Buyer) with regards to 1Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd/Caterham F1 Team.

Since the date of the Agreement, the Seller has refused to comply with its legal obligations to transfer their shares to the Buyer. The Buyer has been left in the invidious position of funding the team without having legal title to the team it had bought. This is in total contradiction to the Seller’s press release of 3 October 2014 which stated that Mr Fernandes and his Caterham Group had no longer any connection with the Caterham F1 Team.

The administrators of Caterham Sports Limited have been appointed on behalf of Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (Exim), a creditor of Mr Fernandes and the Caterham Group. The Buyer has no connection with Exim. Caterham Sports Ltd was a supplier company to the Caterham F1 Team. Very regrettably, the administrators' appointment has had devastating effects on the F1 Team's activities. Since their appointment, the administrators have released various press statements which have been severely detrimental to the management of the Caterham F1 team.

After three months of operating the Caterham F1 Team in good faith, the Buyer is now forced to explore all its options including the withdrawal of its management team. Lawyers have been instructed by the Buyer to bring all necessary claims against all parties, including Mr Fernandes who, as an owner, will run the F1 operation.

http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/843201/f4e6e7eae8/ARCHIVE

[turbof1]

Oh dear, that does not look good...

[Alexgtt]

Well, I was confused before.................now I don't have the slightest clue what's going on. Can someone with better understanding please explain what that means? To me it reads like TF totally screwed the entire operation and the new investors????

[kooleracer]

Well, I was confused before.................now I don't have the slightest clue what's going on. Can someone with better understanding please explain what that means? To me it reads like TF totally screwed the entire operation and the new investors????

So Engavest SA (the Swiss/ Middle-East investors also new management) bought Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd/Caterham F1 Team. But they haven't received control of the shares they say because the owners havent signed to company shares over to the new buyers. So the F1 team is still an asset of Tony Fernandes. Tony Ferandes his other company Caterham Sports Limited have been taken control over by administrators on behalf of Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (Exim) because he hasn't paid them. According to their records Tony Fernandes is still owner of the Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd/Caterham F1 Team thats why they have seized those assets to get their credit that Tony Fernandes owns them back.

So the new owners are screwed because they are under attack from creditors that are attacking/seizing the assets of Caterham Sports Limited which includes the F1 team because Tony Fernandes still has it as a financial asset because he still owns/ in control of the shares.

Update: Tony Fernades so of confirmed he still owns the shares.

@tonyfernandes If you buy something you should pay for it. Quite simple

So he isn't denying to be the owner, it could be that the F1 had a lone with Export-Import Bank of Malaysia and that this lone was due to be payed back. But because no one is in effective control of the team because Tony has "sold" the team but the buyers haven't paid him yet.

Statement of 2nd of July 2014 by CaterhamF1 team ( Tony Fernandes)

Caterham F1 Team is pleased to confirm that Tony Fernandes and his partners have sold the team to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors, advised by former F1 Team Principal Colin Kolles.

Under the terms of the sale, the team will continue to race as Caterham F1 Team and will remain based at Leafield for the foreseeable future.

The new ownership takes charge with immediate effect.

Read more at http://www.caterhamf1.com/news/2014/cat ... Zf1OK6m.99

How can you write a statement like that and now say you haven't sold the team?

I really feel for the people that work at Leafield, their jobs are at stake and being played with.

[Alexgtt]

Thanks for that. So, in conclusion TF has total screwed everyone. What an unholy mess and I feel desperately sorry for all the ex-employees.

[Shrieker]

Long story short, fubar.

[Manoah2u]

UGH what a mess indeed. Allright i've missed about that part regarding Albers, wasn't aware it was that short.

my oh my i'm getting the impression these guys are in deeper pile of something than HRT ever was. wow. poor Kamui, did great runs in the Toyota, then got a seat at Sauber where he did good in a average machine, then got dumped, now is back in F1 in a total disaster. talk about bad luck.

i wonder how deep this rabbithole goes. no wonder the chapmans didn't want to be associated to these guys.

[bill shoe]

I think it's all over for this F1 team. In the last month they've ticked every box of a classic team collapse.

They issued that weird press release 3 or 4 weeks ago where they said Marussia was no longer their competition because their upgrades would put them into competition with Sauber and Lotus (low aspirations and yet delusional at the same time!). Then they retire cars due to lack of basic parts. They issue carefully phrased press releases that try to claim that everything is just fine even though Bailiffs are currently taking stuff from the team's headquarters. Then when they can't maintain the charade anymore they issue a new press release that admits the sky is falling while blaming it on Tony F.

If would be remarkably bald theft and breach of contract if the current would-be owners had actually paid for the underlying team but then Tony F refused to sign it over. That would be straightforward to rectify in any jurisdiction short of North Korea. This leads me to assume the new would-be owners did not actually pay for the team as agreed and thought they could get away with some kind of clever scam of their own on Tony F, but that didn't work out. Perhaps the scam was that they were trying to get away with only taking over the assets, leaving creditors and/or Tony holding the bag for the debt. They never had the means or intention of paying for the whole team (assets and debt) so now they are trying to portray themselves as victims as the thing collapses.

Frustrating end for the second failure out of the three "new" teams. Bit surprising too because when the 3 new teams debuted, Caterham (or Lotus or whatever they were called) was the only new team that seemed to have their stuff together.

Cheers to Tony F and all the other Caterham people who were actually doing the sport instead of writing about it like me!

[CHT]

Tony game plan from the beginning has always been trying to take a free ride using Malaysia government and Proton funding to to eventually take over Lotus sports car brand for a steal. Unfortunately that didnt work and Tony is stuck so he decided to take over Caterham to remain as a "British" and then spread his wing wide and fast to get involve in sports car, American cup, bicycle, bikes etc just to make themselves look bigger than they really are. When they lost 10th place to Maurussia last season Tony knew that time is up and subsequently sold the team.

I was actually quite surprise that he managed to find a buyer, but with this new twist, now I can understand why.

[R4BLR]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-29738116

The BBC are reporting that the now 1MRT staff have been locked out of the Leafield site.

[rohit1594]

I wonder just how much serious the owners of teams like Spyker (yes, they did score 1 point in the VERY WET 2007 Japanese GP at Fuji), Virgin, HRT, Caterham (and dare I say, even Marussia?) were about 'competing' in Formula 1 in the first place... By the looks of things, all they wanted to do, was to get media attention along with the big boys and 'pretend' that they belong to the pinnacle of motorsport. Financial issues, little or no development over the course of the season, pay drivers, ugly looking cars has become the hallmark of such teams!

... and in my opinion, it's becoming a bit irritating now! Frankly speaking, the FIA should not allow new teams into Formula 1 unless they have established some kind of a technical tie-up with a top manufacturer. I wonder how Haas F1 will fare...

[turbof1]

I think Haas will be do much better; they are very realistic about their prospects, and want to avoid a hrt/caterham scenario. And they atleast have some equipment of their own, as well as a good backing. Ferrari is even helping them out with the car. Haas even told he'd happy to be a ferrari B-team. I think that shows that they aren't bound by pride, which is good.

Caterham is probably a goner. Their cars are currently at the workplace which is locked now. If they fail to compete at the american gp, or any other remaining gp, they will forfeit any rights on money from the commercial holder. And even if they show up in Austin, it looks bleak at best... .

Mind you that this was the most healthy team of all the starters back in 2010: had the most financial backing, and a performance advantage. Shows that you can't just spend endlessly money in order to move up the order. Marussia did it with much less resources.

[rohit1594]

Completely agree with you that large amounts of money doesn't necessarily translate into performance (ask McLaren!). My problem is that teams like Caterham don't have enough stability (neither financial nor management-wise) even to SURVIVE a few seasons in the sport!

Spyker F1: 1 yr, 1 pt
Virgin: 2 yrs, 0 pts
Super Aguri: 2.25 yrs, 4 pts
HRT: 3 yrs, 0 pts
Marussia: 3 yrs, 2 pts
Lotus/Caterham: 5 yrs, 0 pts

in comparison with:
Toro Rosso: 2006 - present, 198 pts
Force India: 2008 - present, 459 pts
Sauber (current era): 2010 - present, 271 pts