Caterham and Marussia won't start in Austin

Philip Heck · Oct 25, 2014

So, it seems that was that as both teams are not able to afford the trip to the USA...

Alexandre Rideaux · Oct 25, 2014

Its a damn shame this is happening...

Omer Said · Oct 25, 2014

I hope it goes in the way that we can see 3-driver teams in 2015. These two teams have nothing effective on the races tbh. In the old times, we had crashes and retirements which such backmarkers brought some excitement with. But these last years, even that was not the case.

Alexandre Rideaux · Oct 25, 2014

I wish every team could be competitive, not just the top 2-4. I know its always been like this, but change can be good sometimes. So many factors though...

Ole Marius Myrvold · Oct 26, 2014

Omer Said said:
I hope it goes in the way that we can see 3-driver teams in 2015.

Which would bring the costs up somewhere around 25 mill EUR. So that's a Pastor Maldonado worth of money. Which would most likely lead to Lotus and Sauber struggling, and possibly failing (both teams was very close last year).
I don't see Red Bull paying for 6 cars, so, then we are down to Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams and Force India - and 18 cars again. Then, would Force India be able to keep up with the costs, while running at the back, when you can get much more exposure by being a McLaren or Williams sponsor. Most likely not. So, 5 cars and 15 cars then.
Then we would hope that Haas would be able to pour out enough money. But the guy isn't an idiot, 3 cars as a guaranteed backmarker, would most likely be a no-go.

3 car teams isn't too bad of an idea, assuming all teams (other than Caterham and Marussia) stays. But that's highly unlikely.

Oh, and if all other teams stay, 3 car teams would lead to 27 cars - rules dictates that 26 is the most. Would need serious changing as well.

Nope, short term, 3 car teams is nice.

Long term, it's suicide.

Equal distribution of "prize money" (should be TV&Track fee money) would be a better way I think. The added bonus of "finishing first" and "historical value" will help securing sponsorship anyway.

Bram Hengeveld · Oct 27, 2014

Ole Marius Myrvold said:
Long term, it's suicide.

Long term, it's FIA WEC

Chris Jenkins · Oct 27, 2014

Totally unsurprising for Caterham, surprising and sad for Marussia.

John Robertson · Oct 27, 2014

Yea that's too bad for marussia and Rossi. Our thoughts are still with Jules of course but you know he was hoping to drive these last two races.

Omer Said · Oct 27, 2014

Bram Hengeveld said:
Long term, it's FIA WEC

Which is brilliant. Instead of 11 teams which 4-5 of them have no part in the battle, 4-5 teams with close performances and great battles with their 3 cars.

In addition to this, allow single-car entrants to spice up the field. Guest drivers and guest teams as well for single or for several races.

Jimlaad43 · Oct 27, 2014

Why is it always America where teams pull out. Bernie keeps trying to get America interested, but 2005 and now 2014 have reduced numbers of entrants, especially when Marussia would have entered an American.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Oct 27, 2014

Omer Said said:
Which is brilliant. Instead of 11 teams which 4-5 of them have no part in the battle, 4-5 teams with close performances and great battles with their 3 cars.

In addition to this, allow single-car entrants to spice up the field. Guest drivers and guest teams as well for single or for several races.

Until one of them pulls out.

Omer Said · Oct 27, 2014

Ole Marius Myrvold said:
Until one of them pulls out.

Hey, i am trying to dream romantically about a great future of F1 , stop ruining it

Seriously tough, i think 3 car teams should "at least" be trialed.

Jimlaad43 · Oct 27, 2014

I've just had a crazy idea. How about F1 brings in a budget cap?

Basically, these teams have been dropping out because they were promised a budget cap, which never came, so they're all stuck trying to spend money they were never planning to have in the first place.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Oct 28, 2014

Omer Said said:
Hey, i am trying to dream romantically about a great future of F1 , stop ruining it

^^,

Well, I wish I had a great idea on what to do, but to be fair, I have no idea on what can work. I would think that the first thing would be, as I said in my last post, to give TV-Money and promoters fee equally to the teams. Let's say 75% of it, then the remaining 25% distributed as prize money (that way it still pays better to win than to lose). Stop giving extra money to "historical important teams", which is pure bull seeing as Red Bull a team that's 9 years old get more money due to that, but not Sauber.

Also unqiue IP rules should be loosened up a tiny bit, but exactly how, I don't know. But many years ago, we had a crapload of Marches running in the field. If Lotus, Virgin and HRT (which they once where called) managed to give 20 mill EUR each to Dallara, Dallara would have 60 mill EUR to dev and build a basecar for those teams, which arguably would've been much better than the extremely basic, barely paid chassis they gave to HRT. Then the teams could dev. the car further if they wanted - but that way, they would have a car build for 3 x the budget, which would've made their way into F1 easier.

Not saying it would be perfect, and I have no idea how, if possible that rule would be written to stop a team like Red Bull using Red Bull tech to do the same for RB and TR.

But that would've been a better way as a new team to get going, than the way they had to do it.

Salut Gilles · Oct 28, 2014

Catastrophe. How about forcing king Bernie the 1st share a bit of his unlimited fortune to save his circus, hey?

florence3099 · Oct 28, 2014

I have to agree that it is sad that Caterham or Marussia couldn't make it.

I also agree that single-car teams should be allowed, and also not entering the full season. Then we can see what tracks are actually popular and worth going to.

Customer cars should be allowed, but it needs to be limited to a certain extent, so we don't end up with half the field running Lolas or Dallaras or whatever.

Ole Marius Myrvold · Oct 29, 2014

joe_alker said:
I also agree that single-car teams should be allowed, and also not entering the full season. Then we can see what tracks are actually popular and worth going to.

Customer cars should be allowed, but it needs to be limited to a certain extent, so we don't end up with half the field running Lolas or Dallaras or whatever.

Single car teams is not economical viable anymore, times have changed too much, the additional cost for a second car is much less than the first car, as dev. work is what's most costly.

That probably wont happen, it might be a possibility that there is a lot of Dallaras the first year, but I guess each team will end up with the further dev. work themselves, as it is hard to do dev. work on many cars at once (in the case of Dallara doing work for 3-4 teams). You would maybe end up with 1 or 2 teams using them long-term.

Lola btw, have been out of business since 2012.