If you can stand it, a Marussia thread

Interesting to know.

I'm always happy to hear updates from any team.

The Marussia team is still shell shocked from loosing their WCC place to Caterham. That was big and important $$$ for them.

 

FWIW, Pat Symonds is joining Marussia next season.

We may not like him, or what he orchestrated in Singapore a few years back, but the guy does have a pretty damn good track record.

Reported at Autosport BTW.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Marussia seems to be OK for next year, but the crunch may come in 2014 when the new engine rule applies.
Cosworth will probably stop its involvement in F1, and Marussia may end up with no engine.
I cannot see Ferrari, Mercedes or Renault supplying Marussia.

 

Cosworth is definitely out - they do not have a turbo V6 under development at all.

However, there will be a new engine manufacturer for 2014 - PURE, founded by Craig Pollock.

 

Who cares, happier for Caterham, Marussia is a joke ever since that Tight Wad Branson was involved. Branson is the opposite of the RB Owner.

 

The Marussia's of today are the "rent a F1 here" of tomorrow.

Hence I like them.

 

Are you sure on that? I recall them whining about the cost but not that they were definitely out.

That's looking less & less likely unfortunately - See this thread from the summer discussing their "shutdown"; http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377016

Dunno about anyone else (?), but I definitely haven't heard that they've resumed operations. My guess, and I hope I'm wrong, is they're dead.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I guess it is time for some googling to get updated!

I can't find anything on PURE since those late July announcements of a delay due to interrupted funding. They hoped to only be delayed for a month, but then you'd expect a follow-on announcement, and there's nothing. They may well be dead.

I found an October Cosworth article here: http://www.crash.net/f1/news/184747/1/cosworth_working_on_2014_engine_for_18_months.html

They claim to be working on an engine, but strictly on paper. They need funding or a partner to commit to start physical testing and development. I think it might be too late for them also, the other engine manufacturers all have prototypes built and running on the test beds.

 

Unfortunately, +1.

I'm sure we'd have heard something if the "interruption" had been overcome and they had some money again.

OK, yeah, that was pretty much my understanding too. *If* they can find some money I reckon they could still do it. With some real money a year should be plenty. But it's getting close.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

That does indeed seem to be the situation with Cosworth;
http://chrisonf1.com/2012/12/10/end-of-the-road-for-cosworth/

And they are also having financial problems generally;

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-20121990

 

Sorry to say, but Cosworth has been in trouble since it became under US ownership.

Weren't the present owners the ones who also ran Champcar?

There is a pattern of mismanagement there.

 

None of us are, really..... Just do a *lot* of reading about it.

Only the top 10 finishers in the WCC get Bernie money. Who gets what percentage is defined in the Concorde Agreement. It's complicated (& secret), and somewhat depends on what you did the previous year(s) - Why a name change can cost you big $.

Best guesses right now suggest the Cans will get ~$150MM for their 3rd in a row.

Tenth place is ~$10-15MM. Extrapolate between those two to derive 2nd thru 9th. Total pot this year is ~$500MM by best reports. [Note that it's generally reported in either Euros or UKP]

Ferrari also get 2.5% straight off the top, regardless of final standings.

So, to return to your Q; Yeah, missing that 10th & $10MM hurts 'em! Nothing for 11th. IIRC, their budget was rumoured to be ~$30-40MM btw. Definitely a significant loss!

Unless Bernie makes a charity payment - Which he has done in the past btw. However, this year (after HRT died) he said he'd be happiest with just 10 teams, so that sounds unlikely...... [The Concorde says 13 is the maximum.]

Merry Xmas to one & all

Cheers,
Ian

 

Thanks for that - Good reading. This hadn't occurred to me;

Unless someone comes in with big $ to fund it, I agree they'd be nuts to do it just for Marussia!

That wasn't actually as bad as I was expecting....

As for ownership, from the same article;

Those guys are ex-something here, right? Champcar I guess

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

Good for them!

I know many don't give a damn, but it's looking like there may be a real battle royale between them and the so far very disappointing Caterham. *Much* Bernie $ at stake here.

I was hopeful that the home boys (Malaysia this W/E ) had made some serious progress, but man, it looks like they're struggling.....

Hopefully, a few more Russians will step up prior to Sochi next year - There's enough money floating around there that someone's ego is gonna get the better of 'em.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I find it sad that teams like HRT and Marussia, and many many others don't get any love for being in the back or middle of the pack but P4/5C gets celebrated so much. I know it was really slow but last years HRT looked great and they stuck it out for as long as they could. I have massive respect for teams like Pescarolo, Super Aguri, and Force India.

 

Very good point.

As I said elsewhere: the HRTs of this world still run circles around any other race cars, they deserve respect

 

I read something about Marussia and Caterham merging. Combining their limited resources might be a good thing for all involved ...

 

They have to be judged by their peers.