It is now over 72 hours since Tony Fernandes mysterious tweet... but still no official follow up or explanation.

There has long been talk that Brackley was cursed, and while Brawn went some way to ending such talk Mercedes appears to be on its way to putting it to bed once and for all.

Therefore, for those that way inclined, one has to wonder if in fact it is the Leafield Technical Centre that has doom written all over it, what with the fate of Arrows, Super Aguri and now, seemingly, Caterham.

Since that strange tweet on Friday morning radio silence has been strictly maintained, and though there have been reports of an official announcement before the weekend and talk of a Middle-Eastern (who else?) buy-out, the only word coming out of Leafield is that Indonesia’s Rio Haryanto will drive on the second day of next week's test and Will Stevens on the first.

Sadly, the lack of any official comment, be it confirmation or denial, from Leafield will only lead to more media speculation, all of which will be extremely worrying for the outfit's workforce.

Whatever the future might hold, whoever might take over, it might be an idea to consider an alternative HQ to Leafield, or at least consider an exorcist.

Chris Balfe

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1. Posted by f1khun, 01/07/2014 3:11

"I think that this Exorcist will be coming in the shape of a person that brings a lot of cash funds into Leafield. That will make problems go away. Tony Fernandes comes from an exceptional successful line of low cost airline (Airasia Franchise) and budget hotel (Tune hotel group) and, when he was told there is a budget cap, it sounded - and probably would have been - like Tony Fernandes was the perfect fit to the new formula.

The scam it ultimately appeared to be - no budget cap in sight - was the key to Caterham being driven into the ground. Tony Fernandes is not that races, not that engineer, with the background of Ron, Frank and the likes of those; he is an exceptional keen manager, who needed to oversee MORE spending - which was exactly what did not fit his bill.

I salute him to staying this long in F1, and even supporting the team by buying Caterham (budget-cars) cars. He did what he could but he did not get what he was promised. Otherwise, his team WOULD be higher up the grid.

Now, for the new owners.... As an avid and lifelong fan, since the early 80's, it is in this time and place that for the first time I can say that I would NOT want to own an F1 team. There is nothing to be gotten from it. There always was, there was always a business model. But now, you have to be a multinational to make it work. Which means we - the people, the fans - must be brainwashed with product placement ads.

It is not a sport any more. I confess that I have seen more F3 races (Has anyone seen Max in the European F3 series?) this year then F1 races. Actually, I haven't watched more then 10 minutes of F1 in 2014. I read it all, but there is no sense in it any more. And talking about the current F3, GP2 drivers, what so called PINNACLE OF SPORT do they end up in if they make it? GP2 , Formula Renault 2.0 and 3.5 and F3 is the new real racing. Maybe some new Bernie will step in soon into that world and commercialize these "lower classes" just as Bernie did with F1, and - eventually - replace F1 altogether.

Car racing should be about making mistakes, winning, grinding teeth and beer for all afterward. The clinical F1 from 2014 is dead.

Note:
After writing, seems I could have written this in any other article; it just happened to be written here.
Tony - I support what you do!"

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Caterham: The silence is deafening

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