Marussia F1 And Caterham Are Now Both In Administration

After such a positive start to the 2014 season for the Marussia F1 Team, the last month has been extremely difficult. Jules Bianchi was seriously injured in an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix, and now the Banbury-based outfit has entered administration.

Late last week it was announced that the Caterham F1 Team had been taken over by administrators. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone then said on Saturday that both Marussia and Caterham would be absent from this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

For Marussia, this has now been officially confirmed. FRP Advisory LLP has been appointed administrator of the team’s trading company, Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited. With a lack of funding, the firm felt it was best for the team to skip this weekend’s race in Texas. Joint administrator Geoff Rowley said:

“With the existing shareholder unable to provide the required level of funding, the senior management team has worked tirelessly to bring new investment to the team to secure its long term future. But regrettably has been unable to do so within the time available. Therefore, they have been left with no alternative but to place the company into administration.”

He added:

“Following Austin, there are two further rounds of the 2014 championship remaining, in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi, and the team’s participation in those races will depend on the outcome of the administration process and any related negotiations with interested parties in what is a very limited window of opportunity.

No redundancies have been made following the company’s entering into administration and all staff have been paid in full to the end of October. The ongoing staff position will however be dependent on whether the company can secure new investment in the limited time available. We remain highly focused on engaging with interested parties.”

The F1 grid will be down to 18 cars at the Circuit of the Americas, the lowest number since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. Hopefully solutions can be found for both Marussia and Caterham and we will see the teams back racing soon.