Marussia gone; official

[jens]

I see the point of Storm, and then I see the point raised by Steve and others.

Well, let's put it this way. While looking at things in isolation, you indeed may not see that Marussia has added much to the F1 grid. Are they there at the back or not, doesn't make much of a difference.

But the fate of Marussia is part of the bigger face of F1. It shows that for new teams to come into F1 and become successful has become almost impossible, which the points raised by Dazzla also illustrate. Also the FOM money sharing between teams is massively skewed to put it lightly - you are not let near the pot, and while you are having trouble building up your own team, other teams have budgets + FOM income in place, how the hell are you supposed to compete against them?

Also the number of cars shows the health of F1 grid. I have once read a statement, which I think has a point - a grid consisting of less than 20 cars is never a sign of a healthy racing series. Somebody has to be a backmarker as well. If we take backmarkers like Marussia away, we would have less than 20 cars. I don't think that's fine.

Even if backmarkers may not add much in terms of competition, they are still a natural part of sport, just like frontrunners and midfielders are. Everyone has their role. If you took away all backmarkers, some seasons would become very sparse. For example recall 1995-1996, when I think we had only 7-8 teams, who could be considered at least midfield class - others were all backmarkers, who only through some major luck could get points. And in terms of speed they were consistently many seconds off front-runners.

[RS]

http://m.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/319...auctioned-off/

Sounds like it's definitely game over for Marussia. Not too impressed with the job their administrator has done vs. the Caterham people.

[henners88]

A friend of mine had his redundancy letter and its extremely rare something like that would have been revoked if there was a chance they would be saved. I feel sorry for everybody who lost their jobs in Banbury and surrounding area's. At least it is F1 country and teams like Lotus, Williams, Mercedes, Force India, and Red Bull are all close.

[CNR]

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/12/05/m...your-own-team/

[RS]

On Sky's 'ask crofty' special on Friday, he said that he had spoken to Graham Lowdon and he had told him that the money was in place for the team to be sold. Hopefully it will go through.

[rjbetty]

Marussia and other small teams add an enormous amount to F1 for me.

[CNR]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-30394940
"F1 Marussia: Folded team's assets auctioned"

[Malbec]

Sorry Storm old pal, but I think you have it slightly wrong.

I get that Marussia were not legends of F1. You may say that Minardi didn't bring much to F1, but in my opinion they were fantastic for F1.

Minardi and many other small teams, may not get shown on the TV that much, but they add drama and good racing down the field, which at live events adds alot to a spectators spectacle.

Also I think its clear that its less and less likely that "another team will show up" I mean the costs these days mean teams cannot just be set up and race in F1 for a few years.

Now its extremely rare to have a new team enter F1. Go back 20/30 years and we still had incredibly small outfits able to enter F1 at the back and add to the racing.

Afterall IMO 26 cars racing even if in almost 2 catergories (i.e 16 competative cars and 10 slower cars) is better than 16 cars all told.

I want more cars for more racing. Simple as that. F1 these days will never allow this though because its too expensive just to get an entry

I agree, but its not just that.

Smaller teams provide a chance for young talent to learn their trade and I'm not just talking about drivers but mechanics and engineers too. Ferrari for example wouldn't be so great if it couldn't poach Minardi's best mechanics and engineers.

Also although rare smaller teams can change into more successful ones with capital injection. I'm thinking of FI which up until a few years ago was an embarrassment at the back called Midland/Spyker, or STR which was Minardi. This year's WCC was won by a team that was usually second last in the mid/late 1990s, beating a team to second place that in the early 2000's was causing its owners Ford no end of trouble barely able to call itself midfield at the time. The third best team this year started off with the team owner renowned for scrounging off other teams so he earned the name 'wanker Williams' and until he got Saudi sponsorship didn't exactly threaten the points finishes that often.

Its a shame to lose Marussia and Caterham, both were victims of being owned by people who didn't understand the sport, weren't really interested in it for its own sake and stopped investing money when they failed to make a financial case for themselves. Marussia's end was especially pointless, had the owner not been so bloody minded in the price he demanded for the team he might have found a buyer and they had a good prize haul coming their way for 2015 too.

[CNR]

http://www.foxsports.com/motor/story...auction-121614
"Gene Haas to bid on Marussia F1's assets at auction"

[RS]

Haas has apparently bought the Marussia factory yet there are rumours the team will race on this year with new ownership.

Must be someone with facilities.. I'm guessing Kolles.