The administrators working on behalf of Manor Racing MRT’s parent company, Just Racing Services Ltd, have confirmed that funds are available to pay staff until the end of January.
The team had been blocked from putting their 2017 car into production, with a veto on spending being enforced to protect creditors, but a spokesperson speaking on behalf of administrators FRP Advisory LLP, confirmed money was there to honour staff wages.
“They felt there was sufficient funding to pay the cost base to the end of the month.”
With the confirmation that salaries would be paid to the 212 staff members on Manor’s books this month, comes extra time and a better prospect of administrators being able to sell what the Banbury based squad has to offer to potential suitors, with everything in place to go, for the eventual new owners.
That could allow the revival of a deal to sell the team to an Asian consortium, terms of which had been agreed in December, but fell through due to the lack of time available to be ready for the 2017 season.
Interested parties are still frantically being sought to inject some cash into the struggling outfit, who have never really had control of their finances since entering F1 as Virgin Racing back in 2010.
A similar situation played out at the end of the 2014 season when the Banbury based squad, then running as Marussia, folded after racking up over £35 million worth of debt. They were bought out by Ovo Energy owner Stephen Fitzpatrick at the time, who still runs the team today.
Losing tenth place to the Sauber F1 Team at the penultimate round of the 2016 season in Brazil, was a huge blow to Manor, who lost in the region of £15 million from that drop down the order, and that ultimately signalled the end of their chances of being able to race in 2017.
