[Anonymous]

As we’ve just seen, fans have raised a little under £2m to help Caterham get to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In my time watching F1 seriously (since 1985) this is the first time I can remember a team which has withdrawn from F1 ever coming back again.

As such, it’s an amazing achievement. And fans have put their hands in their pockets to make sure it’s happened. Having made a (small) contribution, I feel very excited that I’ve had the chance to play a part. I wish I could have stumped up more, but bills need paying … you know how it is!

So – my main point. Most fans watch races on free TV and don’t go to races. Their contribution to the sport they claim to love is close to zero. So if it helps save a team, then why not have a regular contributory fund for the smaller teams? And offer a few team souvenirs in return?

Any thoughts?!

[MazdaChris]

Unfortunately Caterham’s crowd funding has nothing to do with saving the team, and everything to do with securing the 10th place prize money for the administrators to pay off the creditors before the team is shut down. They’ve already laid off all the backroom staff (in addition o those they already made redundant earlier in the year) so the remaining ‘team’ is nothing more than the skeleton crew needed to make two cars appear on the grid at Abu Dhabi.

Nobody has saved anything.

[Fer no.65]

It might work but I think it’s just completely wrong. Every sponsor on the car is a huge business that does whatever they do to make money. Even the team, they want to make a profit and survive within a sport that moves billions of dollars every year, and gets paid by the tracks outrageous amounts of money just to be on track, regardless of what sort of show they put up.

So I don’t see why a fan has to reach his/her pocket to allow them to be part of it. We’re already paying our fees by watching, which you say it’s “close to zero”. Remember, though, without us, none of what I’ve mentioned before would happen. So we deserve a lot more respect than that…

It’s your money anyway, and if you feel like spending on keeping a team alive for a week, then fine. But I won’t, I don’t feel like it and I don’t want to. Specially given how tough life is for each one of us and how much more we need the money compared to such a big company like a F1 team.

[MazdaChris]

The thing I just can’t get past is how much money has been wasted by the team’s management. The team have underperformed, and remained glued to the back of the grid. They bemoan a lack of budget, but how much money has been thrown down the toilet? How much money did it cost chasing the rights to the Team Lotus branding, not to mention the cost of uniforms, signwriting, vehicle wrapping etc? And then how much money was spent on legal fees in a futile attempt to keep hold onto that name? How much did they spend on buying a new factory in Leafield? And then how much was spent buying the Caterham car company? And also funding feeder series teams running the same branding? Think about how many tens or even hundreds of millions were spent by the team’s owners, all because their egos demanded that they had a recognisable brand name on their cars. Imagine what the F1 team might have been capable of had all of that money been ploughed solely into the development of the cars. They could have had the budget and performance of a solid midfield team, but instead the money was flushed down the toilet.

Companies and individuals have been left out of pocket for services they were never paid for. Hundreds of people are now facing unemployment right before Christmas. And while it’s really easy to bemoan the unfair distribution of prize money and commercial agreements in F1, the fact is that there should have been plenty of money to secure the future of this team for years to come, but was instead spent on pointless ventures. I feel sorry for the staff made redundant, and I feel terrible for the companies who have been swindled out of money by this bunch of cowboys. But the reason Caterham are in the mess they’re in is because they were run by people who thought it was more important to spend most of the money on the paintscheme of the car, rather than how fast it goes. People like that frankly do not have any business being in F1.

[Dan]

Its not just the F1 team staff I feel sorry for its all the supplier staff and their families who have also suffered I am sure I read somewhere that as a result of the F1 team going bust owing thousands they are likely to lose their home/ business as a result of that debt. So despite the media saying that the 2 teams/ business failed its so much more than that

[Author]

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