Well that didn’t last long. Marussia’s potential miracle comeback is already over as rival teams voted against the team using their 2014 car at F1’s Strategy Group meeting in Paris yesterday.
Justin King, former chief executive of Sainsbury’s, was set to takeover the team if they rightfully received the £25 million prize money for finishing ninth in last year’s Constructors’ Championship, a position made possible by Jules Bianchi’s epic performance at the Monaco Grand Prix. Now the teams will share that money out themselves.
Bye Marussia. Shame on you Strategy Group, how do you explain the concepts of honour and decency to your kids? Enjoy spending Bianchi’s cash
— f1bastard (@f1bastard) February 6, 2015
According to the BBC, Force India voted against Marussia’s entry into the 2015 World Championship and let’s not forget it was Force India’s owner, Vijay Mallya, who spent the better half of last year ranting about rising costs and how teams needed to help each other out. So yeah, good one Vijay.
“They wanted to come in with last year’s car and it didn’t get accepted,” F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told The Independent. “It needed all the teams to agree and there were three or four of them that didn’t agree.
“The money that they should have got gets distributed amongst the teams that are racing. That’s a pretty good reason I suppose.”
@ForceIndiaF1 last season: ‘F1 needs small teams’
This season: ‘Screw Marussia we’re taking their money’
absolutely laughable
— Benjamin Watson (@Colder_Comfort) February 6, 2015
So much for solidarity among smaller F1 teams – @ForceIndiaF1 put the boot into Marussia’s “speculative application.”
— Daniel Johnson (@danielt_johnson) February 6, 2015
In the dog-eat-dog world of Formula One though, are we really surprised?