16/03/2015
NEWS STORY
Bernie Ecclestone believes Manor had no intention of racing in Australia at the weekend, and intends making them pay.
Whilst the Race Stewards in Melbourne might have given Manor the all-clear, having been convinced that the team did all it could in order to race in Melbourne, others, including race fans, the media and Bernie Ecclestone are not so sure.
"We should have never ever, ever allowed Manor to do what they've done. It's our fault. I predicted this would happen," he told Reuters.
"They had no intention of racing in Australia. Zero," he continued. "They couldn't have raced if someone had gone there with a machine gun and put it to their head. It was impossible. They had no intention."
Whatever the south Yorkshire team told the stewards, some contend that the entire Melbourne trip was some sort of ruse aimed at securing the 2014 prize money, the team having finished ninth in the standings courtesy of Jules Bianchi's points finish in Monaco.
Under the rules teams are allowed to miss three races without penalty and with Marussia having missed the final three races of 2014 it is widely speculated that the Melbourne performance was just that, a pantomime aimed at ticking the relevant boxes and keeping within the letter of the law.
However, convinced that the team had no intention of racing Ecclestone says that it will now have to pay its own freight charges for the trip to Australia and back.
"We'll have to see now," he said. "They will have to pay their way to get there and get out of there."
"They are not competing so they have to pay for that," he warned.