Just when things looked like they might turn around for Marussia allowing them to join the grid in Australia for the 2015 season using last year’s car, the F1 Strategy group have voted the idea down.
Perhaps it’s no surprise but F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone told The independent:
“They wanted to come in with last year’s car and it didn’t get accepted,” Ecclestone said. “It needed all the teams to agree and there were three or four of them that didn’t agree.”
Marussia’s estimated £34m in prize-money for finishing in ninth place last year will now be distribute amongst the rivals and perhaps that had more to do with the veto than anything else. Even Ecclestone admitted that it could have been a major element in the decision process.
“The money that they should have got gets distributed amongst the teams that are racing. That’s a pretty good reason I suppose,”.
It’s a shame as Marussia is the one team that I really would have liked to see back on the grid. It’s financial woes late in the 2014 season left the team comatose and unable to work on a new car for the 2015 season so there is little hope that they could create a new car, get it crash-tested and on the grid in Melbourne but fingers crossed.
Formula 1 is a brutal sport, politically speaking, and I am not completely clear but I suspect any changes this late in the process would require unanimous consent and not merely a majority vote by the Strategy group. Something tells me that if the FIA or FOM really wanted Marussia on the grid, they would be there in March but perhaps there is more to the story behind Marussia and it’s potential backers that the public are not aware of.
Hat Tip: The Independent
