The chances of the Caterham Formula One team making it to the grid for the United States Grand Prix are looking ever more slim as the crisis continues to spiral out of control.
A legal dispute between the new team owners and Tony Fernandes has turned into a war of words, with both sides pointing fingers at each other.
Fernandes sold the Caterham F1 team to the Engavest Consortium ahead of the 2014 British Grand Prix. Despite the sale, the team’s financial woes continued and resulted in Caterham Sports Limited (CSL) – who are responsible for making and servicing the F1 cars – going into administration.
The administrators locked the Caterham factory doors and staff continue to be refused access to the premises until an “acceptable proposal” is put forward. Nobody seems to want to take responsibility with the team’s current owners threatening to quit F1. Both Engavest and Fernandes continue to point fingers and blame each other the crisis.
Fernandes last night released a statement insisting that Engavest are to solely to blame as they have not paid their creditors. “We agreed in good faith to sell the shares to a Swiss company named ‘Engavest’ on the basis that Engavest undertook to pay all of the existing and future creditors, including the staff,” Fernandes said.
“The continued payment of staff and creditors was so important to me that I ensured that the shares would not be transferred to the new buyers unless they complied with this condition.
“Sadly, Engavest has failed to comply with any of the conditions in the agreement and Caterham Sports Ltd (the UK operating company of the F1 team) has had to be put into administration by the bank, with large sums owing to numerous creditors.”
Click here to read Fernandes’ full statement.
Engavest has issued a statement in response to Fernandes’ allegations, citing “total contempt” of Fernandes and the Caterham Group executives.
“Engavest SA, strongly refutes the allegations of Tony Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald regarding its conduct while trying to purchase Caterham F1. Our statement of earlier today still stands,” said their statement.
“Every single condition precedent of the Sales and Purchase Agreement for which Engavest was responsible has been met. Only the seller, which includes Mr Fernandes, failed to meet his obligations.
“All salaries have been paid.
“Engavest sold CSL. It did not appoint Mr Cojocar who, we believe, was a former top footballer for Steaua Bucarest during the 1980s.
“The claims of Mr Fernandes and Mr Macdonald contradict their own press statement dated 03 October 2014:
“”Caterham Group wishes to clarify that, following the sale of the F1 business in July, it has no affiliation with Caterham F1 Team”.
“That one sentence alone contains two errors:
“1, the date was June 29
“2, having failed to transfer the shares Caterham Group and Mr Fernandes wholly owned Caterham F1 at the time of the statement, as they do today.
“Incidents such as a Caterham Group representative forcibly breaking into a filing cabinet containing our private and confidential documents and the continued refusal to deal with the outstanding loan of Exim Bank and complete the agreement has culminated in Engavest’s total contempt of Mr Fernandes and his Group executives with whom we entered a deal in good faith.”
Photos: Caterham F1 Team
