Richard wrote:By the way, while "The Sheriffs Office" sounds very official, but it's actually a private bailiff. They'll have been appointed by a creditor who has been to the a High Court to get an order to seize assets to settle a debt.
It seems Caterham are saying the debt is owed by a supplier and that Caterham/1MRT aren't liable for this debt. However, the bailiffs can only seize equipment that is owned by the anonymous supplier. So it seems Caterham don't have ownership of the equipment they are using. Maybe it's leased, or the equipment was used to secure credit from a supplier and that supplier is calling in that credit.
Or perhaps the equipment is owned by an intermediary company separate from the team. For example Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology. In that scenario, the bailiffs could come into RBT, while RBR say it has no effect on the racing team.
Unfortunately the creditor and supplier are unnamed, so we've no way of knowing who is dealing with who.
Possibly the team is a number of different companies, with 1MRT owning the racing license, and not much else, and another / several separate companies owning equipment, leases and contracts with suppliers? So they can say that the 'team' doesn't owe anything, while technically true, it's a sister company that does.
Seen F1 journos suggesting they may be able to see out the season, as all the equipment needed for racing is with them in Japan, and any replacement parts could be sourced from other companies. But it surely dooms their chances for having a car next season? Though I believe they've been doing a lot of work at the old Toyota facility, so they may not have had that 'seized' by the bailiffs...