Caterham Sports, which builds the cars for the Caterham F1 team, has gone into administration.

Caterham Sports (CSL), which is based at Leafield, designs and builds the cars for the Caterham F1 team under licence from the 1 Malaysia Racing Team (1MRT).

1MRT is a Malaysian company which owns Caterham Sports and provides it with management fees to run the F1 team. In turn 1MRT gets income from prize money and the team's sponsors including technology firms Dell and Intel.

It is the F1 team that was bought in the summer by a Swiss/Middle East consortium of which little is known.

The administrator, London-based Smith Williamson, is in talks with 1MRT about continuing the relationship between Caterham Sports and the F1 team, a relationship on which hundreds of jobs are dependent.

It is said the company owes between £12m - £15m to suppliers, hence a visit by the bailiffs earlier this month to seize various equipment including a test car (2013), F1 car parts, F1 simulator, Caterham F1 steering wheels, F1 wheels with tyres, high quality drilling & machining equipment, Caterham & Lotus F1 memorabilia, various pit lane equipment including jacks, pumps and starters, TVs, monitors and other goods and equipment.

According to Business Sale.com, CSL director Constantin Cojocar applied for an insolvency procedure for the company via a court order. In the court paperwork he reveals he has not received the £2 million a week he had expected from backers which he was planning to use to pay off creditors, and was consequently forced to choose insolvency.

Possible buyers for CSL, who are in conversation with Smith Williamson, include (team boss) Manfredi Ravetto, 1MRT and current 1MRT director Michael Willmer.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by MrShadow, 22/10/2014 8:29

"Seems like the team was bought for 1 pound and the buyer hoped to generate enough cash to find the non-existing investors. "

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2. Posted by TokyoAussie, 22/10/2014 3:28

"I don't know if this mess is of Tony Fernandes' doing or the secret mob who bought the team. Fernandes is wealthy enough to have been able to make sure the team was debt free when he sold it, but did he? If it was debt free, then the new owners (whoever they are, and which should not be secret under any circumstance. How is it allowed?) should be strung up for gross incompetence or negligence, most likely willful negligence."

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3. Posted by Paul C, 22/10/2014 1:25

"The Caterham drivers need to go off to drive elsewhere. I'm sure they can find rides in the Tudor Endurance Series in the USA. Caterham sounds like it is on the way to being the primary supplier for Haas Formula One."

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4. Posted by Steve W, 21/10/2014 20:43

"Another failed business. People lose their jobs. Happens all the time..."

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5. Posted by stoney, 21/10/2014 15:47

"I am feeling for the people working at Leafield and hoping for them that this gets resolved quickly, with a positive outcome.

WEC seems to be hiring..."

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6. Posted by White Lightning, 21/10/2014 14:30

"Was Leafield built on the site of an (admittedly out a place by a few thousand miles) Native Americal burial ground?

Was Tom Walkinshaw the Bela Guttmann of the rural Oxfordshire factory?

Or, on the other hand, was the entire Caterham effort a misguided attempt from the start, hamstrung by a fly-by-night owner (as QPR fans will soon find out) and a sales pitch for the new 2010 F1 teams that makes those old 'Smoking Is Good For You' adverts look positively truthful?"

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7. Posted by Ro, 21/10/2014 13:37

"What a mess !"

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Caterham goes into administration

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