Tony Fernandes leaves his position at Caterham F1
The day after the announcement of the acquisition of 50% of Alpine, Tony Fernandes decided to step down from the Caterham team. His successor as team director is already known but will be revealed to the public at a later date.
First and foremost, Tony Fernandes is a businessman. After making a fortune in the airline industry with his company AirAsia, he decided to venture into other activities, including the automobile sector. This led him to launch Team Lotus in 2010, before experiencing a memorable legal battle over the ownership of that name. To resolve it, he acquired the small British manufacturer Caterham.
Now that he is entering the big leagues thanks to his partnership with Renault, Tony Fernandes will refocus on his activity as a manufacturer and will therefore step down from his F1 team. He announced to Autocar that he has left his position within Caterham F1, while his right-hand man, the team’s vice-president, Kamarudin Meranun, will also leave Caterham F1: « Regarding the situation in F1, we concluded that it would be better for someone else to become the team director to move forward. We are definitely better as businessmen than at finding tenths of a second on a lap. It was the right thing for us to lead the team at the start to set up the necessary architecture. The vision is now set, and the team is ready to move forward and compete in the midfield. »
The question now is who will be his successor in this position. Tony Fernandes has already secured the agreement of a candidate but cannot reveal his name to the public yet, as he will come from the F1 world. « I know who it’s going to be and I can tell you today as I received confirmation earlier. I can’t tell you his name. All I can say is that he comes from F1. »
However, the future of the team is not assured, especially since Caterham can still lose its precious tenth place in the constructors’ world championship, notably to Marussia. If this were to happen after the next two races, they would lose the ten million dollars in revenue linked to the television rights paid by the FOM. Caterham might therefore be looking for new financial partners. One solution could be to stop paying for its engine, currently paid to Renault. As someone who likes complex strategies (as shown by the arrival of EADS and Airbus as sponsors after the mega-order placed by AirAsia with the European aircraft manufacturer), Tony Fernandes could have negotiated a discount, or even free engines from Viry-Châtillon, during his negotiations about the future of Alpine.
With the participation of www.Racingbusiness.fr
