230 Caterham workers laid off ahead of season finale in Abu Dhabi
After successful crowd-sourcing fundraiser, F1 team will compete in last race with skeleton crew
The Caterham Formula One team have made 230 employees redundant, while still planning to race in the Abu Dhabi season-ender, an administrator said.
Finbarr O'Connell said the team, who went into administration last month, would take 40 people to the Yas Marina circuit with their expenses to be paid from money raised through a crowd-funding initiative.
Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi would resume his role with Caterham at the November 23 race, a team statement said. The other driver would be announced in due course after Swede Marcus Ericsson severed ties with the team ahead of a move to Sauber for next season, it said.
We are going to Abu Dhabi, racing and talking to potential buyers
Caterham raised £1.92 million (HK$23.3 million) of a targeted £2.35 million by last Friday, with the deadline reset to midnight on November 23, but still face an uncertain future.
O'Connell said the redundancies had come at the request of a majority of the workers who had wanted to start a formal claims process that took at least a month before any payments could be made, if the team was not sold.
"We are going to Abu Dhabi, racing and talking to potential buyers with meetings already arranged," he said. "The second track is that, at the same time the claims forms will be up and running."
O'Connell acknowledged he was in a "race against time", but there were four or five interested parties with the necessary funds, including one that would be a "phenomenal opportunity" if it happened.
The workers at the Leafield factory in central England have not been paid since the end of September and have worked without pay for the past seven weeks in a bid to keep the team alive.
Rivals Marussia, who also went into administration last month, ceased trading with some 200 staff members laid off.
Both teams missed the US and Brazilian Grands Prix, leaving a grid of just nine teams and 18 cars. O'Connell said he had first discussed redundancy with the Caterham workers last month after they were "effectively abandoned" by entry holders 1MRT, founded by Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.
"They were very supportive, but asked would I agree, if the team was not sold by Friday, November 14, to organise them to be made redundant," he added.
He said only about 17 of the 230 had not wanted to be made redundant and they were not members of the race team.
