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Former owner of Caterham thinks there'll never be room for small teams in Formula 1.
Speaking on Sky Sports News, Tony Fernandes said unless there's a reduction in spending throughout the grid, there'll never be room for small teams like Caterham in F1.
"People can blame whoever, but the big teams are as much at fault as anyone. The gap has become way too big and it's money. And so I thought, ‘Well, I can't compete'. But I can compete at QPR; I can compete at Air Asia," he said.
Both Caterham and Marussia entered in F1 in 2010, having been told they could compete with a budget cap. The deal broke down and it's now a total about 500 jobs under threat as the two teams went in administration.
"Rather than continue something where I thought, one, I wasn't able to give it as much time as possible, two, I thought we were on a beating to none anyway, you've got to be brave and say ‘Look, we screwed up. You can't compete; you thought you could and time to leave'," Tony Fernandes said.
"The sport has to examine itself as well. Ultimately we couldn't carry on and we would have eventually gone into administration anyway or closed down the team."
Administrators might look for a new buyer and the businessman adds: "There are people who want to go racing, for different reasons and Caterham has everything there to do it. There may even be teams within F1 who want a second team - a Red Bull/Toro Rosso situation.
"So we'll give it maximum support but it's not something I want to get involved in anymore. You've got to immerse yourself in it. Racing's over for me."
Speaking on Sky Sports News, Tony Fernandes said unless there's a reduction in spending throughout the grid, there'll never be room for small teams like Caterham in F1.
"People can blame whoever, but the big teams are as much at fault as anyone. The gap has become way too big and it's money. And so I thought, ‘Well, I can't compete'. But I can compete at QPR; I can compete at Air Asia," he said.
Both Caterham and Marussia entered in F1 in 2010, having been told they could compete with a budget cap. The deal broke down and it's now a total about 500 jobs under threat as the two teams went in administration.
"Rather than continue something where I thought, one, I wasn't able to give it as much time as possible, two, I thought we were on a beating to none anyway, you've got to be brave and say ‘Look, we screwed up. You can't compete; you thought you could and time to leave'," Tony Fernandes said.
"The sport has to examine itself as well. Ultimately we couldn't carry on and we would have eventually gone into administration anyway or closed down the team."
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| Photo: Caterham F1 Team |
Administrators might look for a new buyer and the businessman adds: "There are people who want to go racing, for different reasons and Caterham has everything there to do it. There may even be teams within F1 who want a second team - a Red Bull/Toro Rosso situation.
"So we'll give it maximum support but it's not something I want to get involved in anymore. You've got to immerse yourself in it. Racing's over for me."