Marussia entered administration last month but had hoped to return to the grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having skipped the United States and Brazilian Grands Prix.
However, the deadline to find a new backer has passed, leading to the Banbury-based team being wound up and the loss of 200 jobs. Which also includes their GP3 team Manor Motorsport as-well.
This season the team scored their first and only points in Formula 1 at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this season, with Jules Bianchi who still remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, after his serious crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.
First of all, I very feel sorry for the staff and their family at the team at this moment of time. Secondly, It's a very sad day that a team like Manor have folded who has 25 years experience as a team that helped the early careers of developing talent like Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton in their Formula Renault days, and taking Formula 3 titles with the likes of Marc Hynes and Antônio Pizzonia back in the early 2000s that now has folded. It really saddens me today to here the news.
So why did a team like Manor has gone bust, in my view for a few simple reasons like I said from last week, one reason is the payout to the Concorde Agreement that makes payout to small teams less money to those teams. For example, Marussia only get $10 Million for finishing tenth in in the Constructor standings last season. While the big red fat cats of Ferrari gets $112 million without even racing is disgusting, that a team of Ferrari who have been a complete failure for the last seven seasons get that amount of money due to their history in Formula 1. It be like a Premier League team who not won a League title for nearly a decade gets £70 million without hitting a ball at the start of a season because of their history.
Another reason is that the cost of the power-units this season, in 2013, the V8 engines cost between £5-10 million per season to the teams; while this seasons V6 turbo hybrid engines have doubled or even trebled, now costing between £15-20 million per season that has steeped up the budgets for this season and for next season too.
And the final reason is when the Caterham, Marussia and HRT entered the sport in 2010, under FIA that time President Max Mosley they were promised that the sport would have a budget cap of around £42 million and governing body the FIA failed to impose this. And also, the current FIA under Jean Todt as President are partly to blame as-well too for Marussia folded with not putting in a budget cap or even capping the price of the V6 turbo hybrid engines instead of focusing on Formula E and WRC as this would not happen under a Max Mosley era in my opinion for the teams like Caterham and Marussia. And that is possibly why a team like Marussia did not survive in Formula 1.
Meanwhile, the Caterham F1 Team is trying to relaunch using crowd funding. The administrator Finbarr O’Connell says that supporters will receive unique rewards, including a once in a lifetime opportunity to get your name on the Caterham F1 car competing in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The opportunity to support Caterham F1’s return to the grid will close when it reaches its £2.35 million funding target by next Friday (14/11/14). I can't see that happening due to do as its too much you are asking the fans to do, I personally think that few of the big teams or even Bernie Ecclestone should help the team out, it's only £2.35 million.
Final thoughts is this, unless if your a Toyota, BMW, or even a Ford, Formula 1 is not economically viable sad to say, unless the rules are change it will help the likes of Caterham, and the Saubers. And the sad fact is this, the last successful Formula 1 team without manufacture backing is Jordan (now Force India) back in 1991. How pathetic is that.
A sad day in Formula 1.
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