The Manor-Marussia Saga

  • Thread starter Thread starter TenEightyOne
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GTPorsche
As of right now, they're the ones with the shiny $40 million bonus coming to them. It's very well possible that Sauber, or even on a higher chance of craziness happening... Lotus, could score 3 points somehow and get that 9th place.
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Sauber must be pushing for that now; if they score 3 points they'll pass Marussia if Marussia score no more points. With double-points at the end of the season they might even fancy trying to pass Lotus who have 8, and Maldonado.

EDIT: Tree'd by @pyrates :)
 
Didn't realize Lotus had points. Must have missed that... my mistake.
 
Gosh this sport is going to go the way of WRC, all the factory teams jumping ship and the whole thing becoming a shadow of it's former self. You would think will all the billionaires in the Far East and Russia someone could run these teams with spare change.

On a side note this is going to seriously damage the image on F1 in the US again after the Indy incident. Going to be one of the smallest starting grids in recent times in Austin.
 
Robin.
Gosh this sport is going to go the way of WRC, all the factory teams jumping ship and the whole thing becoming a shadow of it's former self.
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Well, one team's been sold and is in trouble, another team is in trouble and (we're told) nearly sold. Neither of those are factory teams though.
 
TenEightyOne
Well, one team's been sold and is in trouble, another team is in trouble and (we're told) nearly sold. Neither of those are factory teams though.
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By factory I mean like a car company, I guess you could class Caterham and Marussia as cars companies although the F1 arm's are independent. Either way without plenty of 'proper' factory teams a sport will flounder and we already lost Honda, Toyota, Jaguar etc.
 
Robin.
By factory I mean like a car company, I guess you could class Caterham and Marussia as cars companies .
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Not really though, they might make 6 cars between them for F1 but that's all. Caterham's links to Caterham cars (as with Lotus cars) were nominative and never-quite-there.

Robin.
Either way without plenty of 'proper' factory teams a sport will flounder and we already lost Honda, Toyota, Jaguar etc.
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Honda are back as an engine supplier though, I'll give you sort-of-Jaguar (they were never Jaguar really) and definitely Toyota :D
 
"in Administration"

Is that the same as: credit protection (the road to bankruptcy)?
 
BlacqueJacques
"in Administration"

Is that the same as: credit protection (the road to bankruptcy)?
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Basically the administrators will work out whether the business has the capability (in the long term) to continue without losing cash, they will then trim the fat until it is economically viable while contining to keep the business going, while trying to attract potential buyers. If it doesn't have potential to be viable it will be wound up. If there is no buyer it will be wound up.
 
I was thinking, if even 10% of the total F1 viewers donated, say 5 bucks then we could get Marussia and Caterham back on track. I did some checking so bear with me for the moment. The 2010 total global audience for F1 was 527 million over the entire season of 19 races. If just 10% of the total viewers or 5.27 million people donated 5 dollars that would be $26,350,000. That money could potentially be used to help prop up the teams for the last few rounds before they have the winter to find more secure funding
 
BlacqueJacques
"in Administration"

Is that the same as: credit protection (the road to bankruptcy)?
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@dhandeh has pretty much answered already, but this isn't like a "Section 11" (iirc), the company is bankrupt and no longer trading under its own capital or management. The administrators are from a third-party company who specialise in such matters, they will now be listing who owes/is owed money and trying to settle as many accounts as possible.

They'll do that by advertising a working business for as long as that's a viable proposition; with races ticking down that's not very long. Once a business is clearly not going to be sold as a "going concern" then the property will be sold (liquidated) to settle accounts. I fear that's pretty much where Caterham are, if not Marussia.

EDIT: @RedDragon, that could work, but the accountability systems would have to be immense. My $5 might be spent on one cocktail at a PR weekend. That I don't get to drink or be at. And is that Red Dragon the Blake, or the novel? :)
 
@TenEightyOne That's true. I don't think through the details that much so that is something that would have to be worked out for sure.

It's neither actually. I was much younger when I made this account and I was "oh yeah RedDragon, that's a cool name":lol:
 
RedDragon
I was thinking, if even 10% of the total F1 viewers donated, say 5 bucks then we could get Marussia and Caterham back on track. I did some checking so bear with me for the moment. The 2010 total global audience for F1 was 527 million over the entire season of 19 races. If just 10% of the total viewers or 5.27 million people donated 5 dollars that would be $26,350,000. That money could potentially be used to help prop up the teams for the last few rounds before they have the winter to find more secure funding
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Or the big teams could give up some of their money to help out, but that isn't going to happen either.
 
RedDragon
I was thinking, if even 10% of the total F1 viewers donated, say 5 bucks then we could get Marussia and Caterham back on track. I did some checking so bear with me for the moment. The 2010 total global audience for F1 was 527 million over the entire season of 19 races. If just 10% of the total viewers or 5.27 million people donated 5 dollars that would be $26,350,000. That money could potentially be used to help prop up the teams for the last few rounds before they have the winter to find more secure funding
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http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112399

I think you have to be careful with those numbers. I don't think that means 527 million unique individuals watched F1, according those numbers in the Autosport article 1 in every 2 in the UK watched a race. That's clearly not the case. I'm guessing that's the total number of viewers that tuned in, totalled across all the races, so divide your number by the number of races in a season and you might be closer to the mark.
 
MatskiMonk
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112399

I think you have to be careful with those numbers. I don't think that means 527 million unique individuals watched F1, according those numbers in the Autosport article 1 in every 2 in the UK watched a race. That's clearly not the case. I'm guessing that's the total number of viewers that tuned in, totalled across all the races, so divide your number by the number of races in a season and you might be closer to the mark.
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I think their figures show that 29 million viewers watched an F1 race in 2013 but they don't make it clear.

This blog suggests that 9m watched the Russian GP from the UK, that's still an astonishing number.
 
MatskiMonk
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112399

I think you have to be careful with those numbers. I don't think that means 527 million unique individuals watched F1, according those numbers in the Autosport article 1 in every 2 in the UK watched a race. That's clearly not the case. I'm guessing that's the total number of viewers that tuned in, totalled across all the races, so divide your number by the number of races in a season and you might be closer to the mark.
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That's what I was going for, but I made a few mistakes: 1. Not finding the most recent numbers 2.I didn't connect the dots that the numbers would include multiple time viewers. No matter what though, it would still be a decent amount of change for them to use (with an accountability system) to finish out the season.
 
RedDragon
I was thinking, if even 10% of the total F1 viewers donated, say 5 bucks then we could get Marussia and Caterham back on track. I did some checking so bear with me for the moment. The 2010 total global audience for F1 was 527 million over the entire season of 19 races. If just 10% of the total viewers or 5.27 million people donated 5 dollars that would be $26,350,000. That money could potentially be used to help prop up the teams for the last few rounds before they have the winter to find more secure funding
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Or... Bernie could give the money F1 makes through sponsorships to the struggling teams. Basically, he gives a cut to the lower teams and forces them to spend less by setting them a viable budget cap. Room for any needed repairs of course.
 
The problem with fan funding is that it's not a one-off payment that the team needs. It's securing ongoing long-term funds that is the problem.
 
prisonermonkeys
The problem with fan funding is that it's not a one-off payment that the team needs. It's securing ongoing long-term funds that is the problem.
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That is very true. Question is if in today's F1 back markers are even able to run sustainably without the constant backing of a rich individual.
 
pyrates
That is very true. Question is if in today's F1 back markers are even able to run sustainably without the constant backing of a rich individual.
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The only way to make a small fortune from F1 is to start with a large one, or so the saying goes.
 
Okay, crazy idea on how teams can generate income and FOM can utilise social media: Netflix for Formula 1. NetF1ix.

Teams would be given access to all of the footage of their weekend, from which they could produce their own content and then sell directly to fans. I mean, how many times have we seen races where the race director focuses on one or two main drivers, and there is action down in the pack, but it's getting ignored? By subscribing to a team channel, you could get access to content produced by them, and in exchange, they get funding and directly engage with the fans. There would be real incentive for them to produce a quality product at minimal cost and get coverage that they wouldn't from the world feed.
 
Not a bad idea, but it would likely only widen the gap between the top teams and the rest... I mean, you'd have to be pretty committed to subscribe to the Caterham channel.
 
Which is why they could build up a fanbase by producing high-quality material. Not just recordings of races, but stuff that goes on over the course of the weekend.

I admit it's not a perfect plan, but it would give them the opportunity to try and raise some more money.
 
prisonermonkeys
Which is why they could build up a fanbase by producing high-quality material. Not just recordings of races, but stuff that goes on over the course of the weekend.

I admit it's not a perfect plan, but it would give them the opportunity to try and raise some more money.
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I can also envision that Caterham would end up producing a stop-motion film, based on their starting budget and improvisation skills.
 
prisonermonkeys
Which is why they could build up a fanbase by producing high-quality material. Not just recordings of races, but stuff that goes on over the course of the weekend.

I admit it's not a perfect plan, but it would give them the opportunity to try and raise some more money.
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They could package their highlights and make them into their own TV show...

Pointless.jpg
 
Of course in my points system both teams would have scored in every season and Caterussia would currently be ahead of either Lotus or Sauber...
 
@Blitz24 Stop-motion is actually quite expensive and leaves little room for improvisation.

Alternatives channels of F1 “footage” would possibly weaken the FOM position when selling their feed to the traditional broadcasters, and impact some of the running agreements. As much as I like the concept of a NetF1ix, there still a long road ahead before they can overcome territorial based licensing.

And producing quality “subscription-worth” content would likely involve additional costs for the brave that would dare take that route.
 
Soundtrack
@Blitz24 Stop-motion is actually quite expensive and leaves little room for improvisation.

Alternatives channels of F1 “footage” would possibly weaken the FOM position when selling their feed to the traditional broadcasters, and impact some of the running agreements. As much as I like the concept of a NetF1ix, there still a long road ahead before they can overcome territorial based licensing.

And producing quality “subscription-worth” content would likely involve additional costs for the brave that would dare take that route.
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Nobody would subscribe to Caterham then unless they want to know how NOT to run an F1 team.
 
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