(Florent Gooden DPPI for Renault Sport F1)
Tony Fernandes, the founder and former owner of the Caterham F1 Team believes that Formula One needs examine what it is doing following the collapse of his old team. Fernandes sold the Leafield base outfit in June so that he could concentrate on his chairmanship of QPR Football club. However it was confirmed last Friday that despite having a new owner in the form of Engavest a Swiss/Middle Eastern consortium the team had entered administration and would miss the next two Grand Prix starting with Austin this weekend.
It was then confirmed on Monday that the Marussia Formula One team has also entered administration and will also miss both the United States and Brazilian Grand Prix. It is not all bad news for the Marussia F1 Team however as British-Indian brothers Bajinder Sohi and Sonny Kaushal who have made an offer of £55 million to the administrators to take over the team.
Caterham and Marussia are not the only teams experiencing difficulties this season with the Sahara Force India Formula One team having made the final installment of their payment to Mercedes for their supply of power units.
However the team are now fully up to date on all payments and confirmed a new digital partner for next season.
The Sauber F1 Team have also struggled this season however team principal Monisha Keltenborn stated earlier this season that she was confident that the Swiss based outfit will see out the remainder of the season. They have had a miserable season and are yet to score a world championship point with three Grand Prix left this season.
Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ Tony Fernandes said:
'People can blame whoever, but the big teams are as much at fault as anyone. The gap has become way too big and it is [all about] money. And so I thought, 'Well, I can't compete'. "So rather than continue something that I thought, one, I was not able to give it as much time as possible, two, I thought we were on a beating to none anyway, you have got to be brave and say 'Look, we screwed up. You cannot compete; you thought you could and [it is] time to leave'.
Fernandes who entered Formula One in 2010 under the Lotus banner renaming the team Caterham F1 in 2012 after purchasing the Caterham car company and following a dispute with the Group Lotus.
Fernandes went on to say:
'The sport has to examine itself as well.'
He is hopeful that a buyer will be found for the Caterham F1 Team saying:
'There are people that want to go racing for different reasons and Caterham has everything there to do it,'
For Fernandes however racing is over for him.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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