Tony Fernandes sells Caterham F1 Team to international consortium

Filed under: Motorsports, Earnings/Financials



A little over a month ago, rumors surfaced that Tony Fernandes was planning to sell Caterham. The company subsequently refuted the rumors, but now we appear to have the truth: while the automaker responsible for building continuation Lotus Seven street cars isn't going anywhere, the Formula One team is.

The Caterham F1 Team has announced that "Fernandes and his partners have sold the team to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors." Although the identity of those investors yet to be revealed, they were advised by veteran team operator Colin Kolles. The new team will be run by Dutch racing driver Christijan Albers, who drove in F1 for Midland/Spyker with limited success from 2005 to 2007 (he also won several races before that in DTM). Albers was set to drive in the nascent Formula E series, but has apparently changed his plans.

We're not sure at this stage how closely involved Kolles will be, however, or how this effects his plans to launch his own Romanian F1 team. For the time being, however, Albers is calling the shots, replacing outgoing team principal Cyril Abiteboul, with former HRT commercial boss Manfredi Ravetto joining the team as well.

The move follows a cryptic tweet posted by Fernandes last week, saying "F1 hasn't worked, but love Caterham Cars" right before shutting down his Twitter account. This is the second aborted venture from which Fernandes and Caterham have divorced themselves recently, having withdrawn just weeks ago from its Alpine partnership with Renault, which continues to supply the struggling F1 team with engines that haven't proven competitive.

The change in ownership takes effect immediately, but the team will carry on using the Caterham name at least until the end of the season. "Our target now is to aim for tenth place in the 2014 Championship," said Albers. Currently the team is in eleventh and last place in the constructors' standings with zero points, behind Sauber and Marussia.Continue reading Tony Fernandes sells Caterham F1 Team to international consortium

Tony Fernandes sells Caterham F1 Team to international consortium originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Jul 2014 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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