04/03/2015
NEWS STORY
Stephen Fitzpatrick, the new owner of the Marussia F1 team, reveals his reasons for investing an estimated £30m in the seemingly doomed outfit.
To call it a roller-coaster ride would be an understatement. Not that long ago, the team's life support monitor barely registered the occasional blip. Even Caterham, which entered administration at the same time, ironically having entered the sport at the same time also, managed one last hurrah in Abu Dhabi, courtesy of a crowd funding project.
Then, in mid-January, as the team's more vital assets went up for auction, its Banbury HQ having already been sold to Gene Haas, there came a few encouraging signs of life. Suddenly the talk wasn't of euthanasia but a return to the fight.
Whilst opinion on Marussia's return is divided, some feeling the project was doomed from the outset, others, like Gian Carlo Minardi and Pat Symonds, feeling that the sport needs its underdogs, the fact is that a small group of believers hung on and their faith has been rewarded.
It's a well-worn cliche in F1, that in order to make a small fortune from the sport you have to start off with a large one, but today, Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder of Bristol-based energy supply company Ovo Energy, revealed why he is investing £30m of his hard-earned into the team.
"Until November of last year I was on the wrong side of the pit lane fence," he said at the team's launch in London, according to Reuters. "I went to the Singapore Grand Prix with a friend and we were on the track at the end of the race and looking at all the fans lined up on the pitlane and looking at all the goings on in the garages.
"I said to him 'we need to figure out a way to get over there'," he continued. "It's fun watching the race but as any entrepreneur will tell you, standing by on the outside and looking in and not being involved is very frustrating."
Having made initial enquiries Fitzpatrick, who was named the Smith & Williamson (ironically, Caterham's administrators) Entrepreneur of the Year last year, admitted the situation looked "almost hopeless".
"One of the things that really motivated me was how great a story it could be to figure out a way to help this team cling to survival," he admitted. "I couldn't give up on it, it seemed like too good a story to let end there."
Revealing that he has yet to visit the team's Dinnington HQ and will not be in Melbourne for the season opener, Fitzpatrick, who believes his £30m and the anticipated £28m in prize money it is owed will cover the coming season. He also confirmed that a number of previous potential investors, who subsequently backed out, are back in discussions now that he is on board.
Meanwhile, sporting director Graeme Lowdon, whose roller-coaster ride began long before the team's financial crisis kicked-in, admitted that right now the focus is fully on Melbourne.
"Even just being there is actually an enormous result, a really enormous result," he told Reuters. "It's been an unbelievable rollercoaster but it’s worth fighting for and I'm surrounded by people who equally think it's worth fighting for."