Cash-strapped Caterham are pleading with fans to help finance the team’s multi million dollar attempt to race in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The backmarkers are currently in administration and will miss this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix having also sat out last Sunday’s race in Texas.
But on Friday, the team launched the #RefuelCaterhamF1 project where they asked fans to pledge any amount from 10 in an effort to reach a target of STG2.35 million ($A4.29 million) to get to the grid in the UAE on November 23.
“We are working non-stop to get the Caterham F1 Team back racing, initially in Abu Dhabi, but hopefully that will be just a stepping stone to get it back racing on a permanent basis, under new ownership,” said Finbarr O’Connell, Caterham Sports Limited administrator and interim Caterham F1 Team Principal
“This team deserves a future and I’m sure that there are plenty of fans and companies out there that agree with us, so I can’t think of a better way to get us all together and show our support to the team than this one, the Caterham F1 Team #RefuelCaterhamF1 project.”
The team has lined-up with “Crowdcube”, a crowd-funding platform, to facilitate the cash push.
Caterham’s announcement came just hours after fellow strugglers Marussia ceased trading and made nearly 200 staff redundant.
Frantic final efforts to save the UK-based team were dashed in a statement from the administrators, appointed last month.
Geoff Rowley, joint administrator, said: “It goes without saying that it is deeply regrettable that a business with such a great following in British and world motorsport has had to cease trading and close its doors.”
The news of Marussia’s demise comes just a day after the company that owns the entry – Manor F1 Team – appeared on a provisional line-up for the 2015 season.
Marussia originally entered F1 in 2010 as Virgin Racing, before being taken over by Russian businessman Andrey Cheglakov.
It scored its first points at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, thanks to the efforts of Frenchman Jules Bianchi, which would have helped secure it a hefty boost of commercial rights incomes at the end of the season.
Marussia went into administration on October 27, four days after administrators took over the Caterham team.
