Manor Marussia F1 Team 2015

[acosmichippo]

What about their factory situation? I thought Haas bought it.

[RicME85]

Manor have a factory... Up Sheffield way, its where they run their lower formula cars from.

[Jonnycraig]

Guys, it was too late by Christmas to produce the 2015 car, so it's definitely too late now. They'll be driving the 2014 car, which I believe will be a formality. The fia already indicated Marussia and Caterham would be allowed to drive those cars.

Autosport saying today that it needs the other teams to agree for the 2014 cars to be run. Also say that McLaren are not involved.

As said just above: "If its private investors, they need to secure access to a factory, hire a new workforce (many ex staff will have new jobs already), fund a years worth of Ferrari engines upfront, modify the 2014 cars to be legal, and presumably find two heavily funded drivers, all within 5 weeks. And then with an old car, likely fail to achieve 107%."

Hard to believe that much would come of this outside of a Super Aguri style disappearance midseason.

I don't think the other teams will lodge protest. The car will be lucky to end up within the 107% rule as it stands, so competition-wise the others will have no concerns. And as far as they go, that's the only thing they are concerned about.

I just struggle to see why Mercedes & Red Bull would agree to allow Ferrari a further two engines pounding round tens of thousands of kilometres giving them more data though.

Unless they are 'incentivised' by Bernie of course.

[hollus]

It would make sense for a lot of people to be "the investor". If you were planning to enter F1 in 2016, buying Marussia now you get:
a) 30M in 2014 prize money. This will cancel most of the debt.
b) XXM in 2015 price money, all you have to do is be regularly within the 107%, and you are allowed to use engine killing modes and tire killing setups for that if needed, the speed in the race is irrelevant. 10th in the WCC is guaranteed.
c) A really good shot at 2016 price money. The 2016 traveling fund is in any case guaranteed? This would not be available to any team starting in 2016, as you have to be in the top 10 for 2 years out of 3.

To get this you need to run a 2014 car which has most pieces already made. You invest 0 in improvements and design of the 2015 car. Pay drivers welcome!

In preparation for 2016 you get:
Track data, telemetry, setup baselines, etc. for all tracks.
Experience on which of your 2015 drivers are good for 2016, you get to test 5 or 6 drivers if you are clever. If you had a rookie in mind, he gets a full year of experience.
Inside info on contractors, politics, power unit engineers, tire info, etc.
An existing team to mount a credible hiring campaign for 2016.
12 months of time for designing the 2016 car. The design team is not distracted by the 2015 campaign. They get full details of a decent 2014 car for inspiration.
12 months of time to get a testing team, wind tunnel team, etc, working together before the "real" 2016 debut.
Real testing of any pieces that might need testing. 19 race weekends, races included, of testing.

And a pre-aproved entry slot for 2016 that does not depend on the whims and blessing of an octogenarian.

Win-win-win-win-win, IMO.

[Jonnycraig]

It would make sense for a lot of people to be "the investor".

Apparently the investor is Justin King, formerly CEO of Sainsburys and father of GP2 driver Jordan.

[marcush.]

It would make sense for a lot of people to be "the investor". If you were planning to enter F1 in 2016, buying Marussia now you get:
a) 30M in 2014 prize money. This will cancel most of the debt.
b) XXM in 2015 price money, all you have to do is be regularly within the 107%, and you are allowed to use engine killing modes and tire killing setups for that if needed, the speed in the race is irrelevant. 10th in the WCC is guaranteed.
c) A really good shot at 2016 price money. The 2016 traveling fund is in any case guaranteed? This would not be available to any team starting in 2016, as you have to be in the top 10 for 2 years out of 3.

To get this you need to run a 2014 car which has most pieces already made. You invest 0 in improvements and design of the 2015 car. Pay drivers welcome!

In preparation for 2016 you get:
Track data, telemetry, setup baselines, etc. for all tracks.
Experience on which of your 2015 drivers are good for 2016, you get to test 5 or 6 drivers if you are clever. If you had a rookie in mind, he gets a full year of experience.
Inside info on contractors, politics, power unit engineers, tire info, etc.
An existing team to mount a credible hiring campaign for 2016.
12 months of time for designing the 2016 car. The design team is not distracted by the 2015 campaign. They get full details of a decent 2014 car for inspiration.
12 months of time to get a testing team, wind tunnel team, etc, working together before the "real" 2016 debut.
Real testing of any pieces that might need testing. 19 race weekends, races included, of testing.

And a pre-aproved entry slot for 2016 that does not depend on the whims and blessing of an octogenarian.

Win-win-win-win-win, IMO.

does make you wonder why on earth someone with a brain who is seriously planning to run ferrari powered formula 1 machinery in 2016 would hesitate to grab the lot with both hands and go racing already in 2015 creating experience and benchmarks -targets for his new team ....
sure the whole thing is worth a lot at the end of 2015 still ..with a full year time to sell the entry and 2015 car design if one wants to recap even more of the initial investment.. a nobrainer-if you are serious and have the money.
So what´s wrong with Mr.Haas?

[Facts Only]

It would make sense for a lot of people to be "the investor".

Apparently the investor is Justin King, formerly CEO of Sainsburys and father of GP2 driver Jordan.

His name has been banded about F1 for years, often as a replacement for Bernie at CVC. When asked by John Humphries on The Today programme he gave a fairly evasive answer (last year it was I think).
It would be nice to have someone competent like him in charge of F1 but maybe he would prefer a team, I bet hhe could bring a small amount of Sainsburys sponsorship but they are a bit to UK centric to be a title sponsor I think.

Where did you hear that he is the investor?

[turbof1]

We don't know if the team will get the price money. The conditions of getting said money are noted in the concorde agreement, and that's a fully disclosed contract we don't have anything official on. There were quotes and pieces that said that a team needs to attend all races, there were other quotes it was allowed to miss 3 races, other quotes say that the team is not allowed to change names. And we don't know if they are given some leeway if they did breached the conditions.

I hope they'll get it, for the record.

[RicME85]

I'm sure I read that they are getting which is why there is a deal in the making to bring the team back as it cancels half the debt for a new owner.

[ESPImperium]

It would make sense for a lot of people to be "the investor".

Apparently the investor is Justin King, formerly CEO of Sainsburys and father of GP2 driver Jordan.

His name has been banded about F1 for years, often as a replacement for Bernie at CVC. When asked by John Humphries on The Today programme he gave a fairly evasive answer (last year it was I think).
It would be nice to have someone competent like him in charge of F1 but maybe he would prefer a team, I bet hhe could bring a small amount of Sainsburys sponsorship but they are a bit to UK centric to be a title sponsor I think.

Where did you hear that he is the investor?

Justin King will turn the team around the same way he did 10+ years ago when he took the helm at Sainsburys, i know, i have worked through that time, met the man 3 times and know first hand what he is capable of.

Justin, as i know him, will focus on the cost base and keep the team viable, he has a phone book full of companies who would want to sponsor in F1, many already are and some are sponsoring multiple teams. At Sainsburys we had a broken IT system and outdated work practices when i started, he fixed them over time by minimising the management structure, something that is important in F1, so he could simplify the way the team runs, keep things tight, run frugally for the 2015 season to get the MR03 to the end of the season with a updated nose and concentrate on certain areas of performance upgrades that will be cost effective in manufacturing and R&D terms that translates onto the track. As long as the car can be within the 107% for all the quail sessions thats the goal.

As for certain names for sponsorship, id say that Samsung may be a possibility. As for Sainsburys, id say maybe for the British GP for a €300K one off deal, but for the rest of the season id maybe say no. But there some other centric sponsorships in F1, especially on the Sauber at the moment, but may be wrong.

I do hop it is Justin that takes the team over with John Booth and Graham Lowdon. The last two deserve to have a shot, a proper shot at F1, even if it takes another 2 or 3 years to get to the performance level that the MR03 was just about to show to break through into the sports elite. There is a heck of a load of things to do in the time, can it be done, i hope so, even if the team is on the grid in HRT style sticky plaster for that race.

[bill shoe]

I looked at a couple typical races from midseason last year and Marussia was 2-3 seconds quicker than the 107% cutoff, which means maybe they were 103-104% off Q1 quick time. So unless the competition is 2-3 seconds faster in 2015 or the reborn Marussia operates the cars significantly less well, I think qualifying within 107% should be consistently doable.

Backmarkers circa 2014 are vastly more competitive that backmarkers in previous years. Even 3 or 4 years ago HRT was struggling to fit within 107%, but in 2014 Caterham and Marussia did it with ease. Downside is this probably requires top-notch equipment, spares, data acquisition, operations engineering, preparation, etc. and this all costs money. My personal idea of a shoestring 2015 budget applied to the 2014 Marussia cars might not get them within 107%.

[FW17]

I think a lot will depend on weather they can fit a 2015 spec engine(any) into their 2014 chassis. Else they will be stuck with 2014 Ferrari engine.

I was wondering why 2014 chassis would be illegal. The nose of the 2014 car (I think) would need only a vanity panel to make it legal for 2015.

[FW17]

"Their plan is to revive a high-quality British racing ethic and brand-name."

Who is this?

BRM, Lola, Reynard, March?

[WaikeCU]

Brabham? That crowdfunding project?

[Daliracing]

Brabham? That crowdfunding project?

i was also thinking about that. It would be nice to see the name back in the sport