16/05/2013
NEWS STORY
As Queens Park Rangers is relegated, Tony Fernandes admits he should have stepped down as team boss at Caterham sooner in order to concentrate on the football club.
The writing was on the wall sometime ago, however, it became reality just a couple of weeks ago when the west London clubbed crashed out of the Premiership after just two seasons.
Fernandes, who bought into the club in late 2011, having bought Bernie Ecclestone's 66% stake for a reported £35m, claims that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have done things differently. He stepped down as boss at Caterham at the end of late 2012 in order to concentrate on the football team but by then it was too late.
“I think the mistake was I didn’t spend enough time as I should have,” he told Metro24. “That’s why I thought maybe it’s best to step down. I think we’ve solved it by lots of video conferencing and phone et cetera. No doubt about it, you need to spend time here. I’ve spent one week consistently here and that’s made the difference.
“There’s no relegation in Formula 1, just insolvency,” he continued, comparing the two sports. “There is a little bit more predictability in Formula 1. What you do in the wind tunnel comes out and you know more or less where you’re going to come. It’s also the boring part of Formula 1. QPR can go out and beat Arsenal, you don’t know. In Formula 1 you know that Caterham won’t beat McLaren.”
The Malaysian then reiterated a comment he recently made on Twitter, a comment that raised eyebrows in the paddock and amongst fans.
“I said in my tweet it took me three years to get Formula 1 right. It’s my second year here. Maybe next year we’ll get QPR really right."
However, now in its fourth year of F1, Caterham has yet to score a point. Is that 'getting it right'?