The Marussia F1 Team are set to join the Caterham F1 Team on the sidelines for next weekend’s United States Grand Prix after Formula 1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone indicated that neither team will travel to Austin.
Talking to Reuters, Ecclestone, whose company Formula One Management organises the transportation of all of the teams’ cars and freight to the flyaway events, said: “Neither of those teams are going to go to America.”
Caterham have already been allowed special dispensation to miss both the race in Austin and the following race at Interlagos in Brazil to allow them to seek a buyer that will allow them to continue to race, but with Marussia also set to be absent, the field levels are likely to be the lowest since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, when the British American Racing team were banned for a technical infringement.
With Jules Bianchi still in a critical state in a Japanese hospital following his horrendous Japanese Grand Prix crash, Marussia raced with just one car for Max Chilton in Sochi, and it was believed that Alexander Rossi would step up into the vacant second seat for his home grand prix.
Unfortunately it seems that due to the financial struggles the Marussia team are facing, it seems that the American will once again miss out, and with the future of the team seriously in doubt, it is hard to see when he would get another opportunity.
Marussia’s absence will give the Sauber F1 Team the chance to move ahead of them in the Constructors’ Championship, although they would need to secure at least two points in the remaining three races to do this due to Bianchi’s excellent ninth place finish in Monaco.
The financial struggles for both Marussia and Caterham once again highlights the issue of the cost or racing, and after talks earlier in the season between F1 chiefs, the issue is no nearer to being sorted.
Should Formula 1 lose both Marussia and Caterham over the next few months, then it will mean all of the teams selected to join Formula 1 in 2010 would have folded within five years, with HRT already gone and USF1 never having made it.
