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Marussia looks set to join Caterham in missing the United States Grand Prix after Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said on today neither team would travel to Austin.
Caterham looked set to miss the American race earlier this week after its management stepped back and gave control of the team to administrators, who are now seeking a new buyer to save the squad.
Marussia has also been struggling financially and has been well documented over the past year or so. In an interview with Reuters today, Formula One Commerical Rights Holder Bernie Ecclestone stated that both Caterham and Marussia will not attending the US GP. Ecclestone said the following:-
‘Neither of those two teams are going to go to America.’
Marussia raced with just one car in the previous race following Jules Bianchi’s accident during the Japanese Grand Prix. However, Formula 1 cars are due to be shipped by Formula One Management to Austin today.
With the absence of Marussia and Caterham, the grid will be reduced to 18 cars for the first time since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, when the BAR team was banned for two races for a technical infringement.
It was also announced yesterday that the FIA will not ask top teams to run a third car this season even with fewer than 20 cars on the grid.
But with the circumstances surrounding each of the two teams, there is no doubt that this will have affected them and my heart goes out to each team. But with the absence of Caterham and Marussia from the Austin grid comes after months of fruitless talks between F1 chiefs to find ways to reduce costs in the sport.
And if this is the case and both Caterham and Marussia do not appear as planned in the US GP next weekend, not only is that a shame but it only confirms just what the rest of us already knew and what many of us suspected would happen sooner rather than later.
And that is the rising costs of Formula One are just too much to be sustained and something needed to be done about this before it was too late. And I now I fear it is too late and we have lost two important teams in the process which could have been avoided if help was provided for them and it should have been.
Let’s hope that we can see both teams on the grid next weekend in Austin, but I fear that we may not see Caterham nor Marussia there. But if that happens, both teams will be missed from the grid, even if you support them or not.
