Official: Tony Fernandes sells Caterham
The news had been expected for several weeks and is now official: Tony Fernandes has just sold the ownership of his team to Middle Eastern and Swiss investors. Cyril Abiteboul is being replaced in his role as team director by former Dutch driver Christijan Albers.
Our predictions had therefore been correct: last May, when Tony Fernandes issued an official statement to announce that he intended to remain the owner of Caterham, we drew a parallel with the statements of Vijay Mallya just before the Indian businessman sold a significant share of Force India’s capital to Subrata Roy.
At the time, the Malaysian businessman stated: « Caterham Group is not for sale. We like what we are building and we are always looking to make more investments. It is no different from how we launched AirAsia. Yes, we are always looking to exceed ourselves from the structure to the projects within the Group. It’s normal business. It doesn’t mean we are selling. »
Today, the reality is entirely different since he has transferred the entire capital to new investors, who are advised by Colin Kolles. The latter was the director of the now-defunct HRT and was one of the spearheads of Forza Rossa, the Romanian team project that is supposed to make its appearance on the grids next season.
It seems that he decided it was more cost-effective to acquire existing infrastructures, with staff already in place in Motorsport Valley, rather than starting from scratch. Nevertheless, he decided not to be the team director, as this role is entrusted to former driver Christijan Albers, who thus replaces the Frenchman Cyril Abiteboul. The latter might return to his previous employer, Renault Sport F1.
Christijan Albers thus declared: “We are aware of the enormous challenge that lies ahead of us at the bottom of the standings and our goal is to aim for 10th place in the 2014 championship. We are committed to the team’s future and we will ensure that the team has the resources to develop and progress in order to realize its potential.”
The team will retain its current name of Caterham to secure the gains related to its history in the discipline over the past three seasons. If the new owners had decided to change the name, they would have lost the millions of dollars associated with it. We will therefore find ourselves in a situation where three teams (Lotus, Marussia, and Caterham) bear the name of a car manufacturer without any longer having any capitalistic or financial ties between the two structures…
With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr
