[Team] Marussia - what next?

[bella]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Here's hoping the right amount of funding arrives from somewhere, to get a pair of cars on the grid in Melbourne!

surely only a fool would consider trying to be on the grid when your only opponent would be the 107% rule?

i guess there's a small jot of logic behind chasing the prize money, given that over the course of a season it could cover a fair percentage of the cost of running the car, but...

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by bella

surely only a fool would consider trying to be on the grid when your only opponent would be the 107% rule?

i guess there's a small jot of logic behind chasing the prize money, given that over the course of a season it could cover a fair percentage of the cost of running the car, but...

The question probably remains though, if the squad is allowed to use the '14 chassis, and the '14 Ferrari engine (presuming Ferrari are still on board with the project...) whether there are actually 2 fully functioning '14-spec chassis in the world somewhere for use

[chrisrb2002]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The question probably remains though, if the squad is allowed to use the '14 chassis, and the '14 Ferrari engine (presuming Ferrari are still on board with the project...) whether there are actually 2 fully functioning '14-spec chassis in the world somewhere for use

The cars still in abu dhabi? (would have been a brilliant move to have done that!) away from the creditors. All very well saying that have a team/entry but they are never going to qualify with no drivers or indeed team to facilitate the team. What do they say about an fool and their money.. They fund F1 teams.

[Moneyseeker]

Be interesting to see who is behind it but it must be a very credible and well funded proposal for the administrator to take it seriously and not another finger in the air dreamer wanting to play with some F1 cars.

[wolfhound]

I read a story that Ferrari might be interested in buying Marussia to create a junior team like RedBull and STR. Can't find the like but there is some logic to the idea i.e. it would give Ferrari greater influence in F1, Marussia use Ferrari engines so helps with development. Ferrari should be able to get something out of what they are owed by Marussia.

[steve_r]

I was expecting this to be more hot air, but it says that they have paid the 2015 entry fee, which I presume is a substantial sum?

We have already had suggestion of a Ferrari and Mclaren Jr team. Whilst we are merely speculating, I would suggest that Honda might like another team to run their engines and provide more feedback. Of course, this would be a very expensive way of doing that...

Marussia have no factory, so would need a new base, unless they can agree to rent their old one back of Haas on a temp basis.

[BSchneiderFan]

Whatever happened to rumours of a Romanian-backed F1 team?

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by steve_r

I was expecting this to be more hot air, but it says that they have paid the 2015 entry fee, which I presume is a substantial sum?

We have already had suggestion of a Ferrari and Mclaren Jr team. Whilst we are merely speculating, I would suggest that Honda might like another team to run their engines and provide more feedback. Of course, this would be a very expensive way of doing that...

Marussia have no factory, so would need a new base, unless they can agree to rent their old one back of Haas on a temp basis.

Caterham might have a base they arent using

[bella]

there's plenty of suitable workshop type space in the motorsport triangle, i don't think that's really going to be a problem

i'm pretty sure it's not an existing team wanting a junior setup. for starters it'd be wasting money they could spend on their own car. adapting the marussia chassis to take an engine other than last years ferrari is probably a bit of a pain in the backside and would make melbourne a total impossibility...

[jee]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Whatever happened to rumours of a Romanian-backed F1 team?

Forza Rossa is coming 2016

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by bella

there's plenty of suitable workshop type space in the motorsport triangle, i don't think that's really going to be a problem

i'm pretty sure it's not an existing team wanting a junior setup. for starters it'd be wasting money they could spend on their own car. adapting the marussia chassis to take an engine other than last years ferrari is probably a bit of a pain in the backside and would make melbourne a total impossibility...

How many changes would McLaren or Ferrari have to make their 2015 chassis in order for it to be classed as 'different' and therefore not a customer chassis?
That could be a more effective answer than modifying the Marussia chassis to suit a different engine installation...

[bella]

a fair path to go down, but it'd still take them a while to build 2 new ones though. f1 teams struggle to get 2 chassis ready in time to air freight them to melbourne, how would they manage to get another 2 ready for manor?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by bella

a fair path to go down, but it'd still take them a while to build 2 new ones though. f1 teams struggle to get 2 chassis ready in time to air freight them to melbourne, how would they manage to get another 2 ready for manor?

I don't know the answer to that bella, but the idea flashed through my head that my suggestion could be a better alternative.
One more thing, I can't remember now where I read it, but I'm sure the team doesn't have to appear until a few races into the season without forfeiting their Bernie money, so they may have more time than we think to either adapt the existing or build a new chassis...

[bella]

i've seen that too, that they can miss 2 races in a season and not get into too much trouble. but i think the prize money is proportional to the number of races they turn up for this season. so if they turned up for 2 less, there'd be the relevant percentage missing from the 2014 money they're turning up to gain.

tricky balance isn't it? common sense is really not to touch the '15 season at all, but it's so swings and roundabouts. if the money is there to compete, why not?

[old man]

In an earlier comment I am sure J Booth said the cars were in Abu Dhabi. The story implies the Administrator has an agreement with the creditors so one assumes that includes Ferrari.

Unlikely to be a Ferrari Junior team, this sounds more like that:

http://plus.autosport.com/premium/fe...884.1373558528

[Mike Harte]

Looking at the positives, the old premises where the team used to be based, in Huntingdon I believe, when it was launched as Virgin Racing (or whatever it was called), is still available. The problem at this point in time is that most of the staff needed to run a team would be difficult to find on such short notice, and the 2014 cars are not even in the UK.

However, according to this article on the GrandPrix website ( http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns29895.html ) there would appear to be opposition from other teams to the reconstituted team being allowed to run a 2014 car if they are successful in raising enough money.

My own thoughts on this are, and I would like to see as many cars on the grids as possible, why would anyone want to spend an amount probably nearer 100 plus million just so that they can get back 40 odd million over the course of the year (payments from FOM are spread over the course of the season - one way to make sure that the cars are on the grid for every race)? It just doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Looking at the positives, the old premises where the team used to be based, in Huntingdon I believe, when it was launched as Virgin Racing (or whatever it was called), is still available. The problem at this point in time is that most of the staff needed to run a team would be difficult to find on such short notice, and the 2014 cars are not even in the UK.

However, according to this article on the GrandPrix website ( http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns29895.html ) there would appear to be opposition from other teams to the reconstituted team being allowed to run a 2014 car if they are successful in raising enough money.

My own thoughts on this are, and I would like to see as many cars on the grids as possible, why would anyone want to spend an amount probably nearer 100 plus million just so that they can get back 40 odd million over the course of the year (payments from FOM are spread over the course of the season - one way to make sure that the cars are on the grid for every race)? It just doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

It depends how you quantify it and how it is structured. As it stands Ferrari will have to write off tens of milions of Euro's and explain to shareholder where it went, the problem with a debt is that you have nothing to show for it.

Say that it is someone wanting to run it as a semi satellite junior team - say Honda or Ferrari there will be certain economies of scale, you get extra engine mileage and testing, you can get some income from drivers, FOM money and twice the learning ability.

It wiould make sense for Honda as they are a year behind in actual running time and McLaren have junior drivers to slot in and of course McLaren are owed $10M as well they will never see otherwise.

I completely agree that it makes no sense for an outside investor to rescue the team which only provides the opportunity to spend even more to run it, which is why I think it has to be an F1 connected or even current particpant who can justify the cost.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

However, according to this article on the GrandPrix website ( http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns29895.html ) there would appear to be opposition from other teams to the reconstituted team being allowed to run a 2014 car if they are successful in raising enough money.

As that article states Justin King is heading the consortium looking to buy Marussia, it's probably a safe bet that if this happened there would be a driving role for his son at some point in the future (Jordan King is graduating to GP2 this season with Racing Engineering).

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Caterham might have a base they arent using

Two actually.The old Hingham premises,complete with machinery are available for £1.85 million.Don't know what Leafield would cost.

[GTRMagic]

More Here

It would be interesting if the story is genuine, and more importantly, that money has changed hands...

[Nikki Katz]

Will be good if it happens, though really I think that the team needs Caterham as a benchmark, without them they're just going to be a couple of seconds a lap slower than the rest of the field, possibly more as they'd have to run a 2014 car.

I thought that the dispensation was only that the teams were allowed to use 2014 engines, not 2014 cars? I might be wrong though. Either way, would their inclusion result in Sauber getting less prize money? If the teams have to agree to their entry and the rules at this late date then I can't see Sauber backing something that'll cost them. They already appear to be on the low fuel sponsor hunt run at the moment.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Nikki Katz

Will be good if it happens, though really I think that the team needs Caterham as a benchmark, without them they're just going to be a couple of seconds a lap slower than the rest of the field, possibly more as they'd have to run a 2014 car.

I thought that the dispensation was only that the teams were allowed to use 2014 engines, not 2014 cars? I might be wrong though. Either way, would their inclusion result in Sauber getting less prize money? If the teams have to agree to their entry and the rules at this late date then I can't see Sauber backing something that'll cost them. They already appear to be on the low fuel sponsor hunt run at the moment.

They might be quicker than Force India

[ECW Dan Selby]

/\ That's a good point, actually..

Selby

[Moneyseeker]

Anyone think BE might be involved in this in some way....?

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Anyone think BE might be involved in this in some way....?

Who knows. Some days he appeared to be almost actively trying to get rid of the newer teams, and then on other occasions he makes noises about trying to support them.