Both Marussia & Caterham have got very less time if they are to take any part in 2015
With just 26 days until the winter test season begins in Spain, neither of the two have committed to running at Jerez at the start of February.
“Talks with interested parties continue,” Caterham administrator Henry Shinners told the BBC, “but if a buyer is not found before the test, we will not put up the money to go.”
The team has arranged to be allowed to run its 2014 car and engine this year, but Shinners warned that any rescue deal would need to be in place within a “few weeks”.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” he said, “but if we reach the first race in the same position, the chances of saving the team are virtually nil.”
Marussia, whose crucial team equipment has been auctioned in a bid to pay back creditors, staff are laid off and even the Banbury headquarters could be sold to the new American 2016 team Haas are in an even worse situation.
Their only hope now is that an eleventh-hour investor might step in so that millions in official prize-money for finishing the 2014 season in ninth place can be unlocked.
“There’s still a slim hope,” team boss John Booth told the Yorkshire Post, “but it’s getting extremely late. We’ve got two weeks to complete something by. So there’s still a chance. We are talking to investors and they are positive talks.”
