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I bet Kolles and his friends never had a serious intention in buying Caterham. They just wanted to have the data of the car for their Forza Rossa project, so they wouldn't had to start with a clean sheet.

Dingdingdingdingding

Hopefully the poor sap who pays to drive what was Kamui's rolling junker for the last 3 races isn't killed by it falling apart.

If you buy something you should pay for it. Quite simple

Strange. I noticed a pattern where all the team ever based in Leafield have been wound up as a result in an interval of 6 years.

Arrows-1978-2002
Super Aguri-2006-2008
Caterham-2010-2014?

Strange. I noticed a pattern where all the team ever based in Leafield have been wound up as a result in an interval of 6 years.

Arrows-1978-2002
Super Aguri-2006-2008
Caterham-2010-2014?

I quit reading his blog when it came afloat het was a Caterham fanboy nevertheless I agree on this piece he wrote

Tony Fernandes, Caterham Group co-Chairman:

“In June 2014, I decided, together with my co-shareholders, to sell my stake in the Caterham F1 team. We agreed in good faith to sell the shares to a Swiss company named ‘Engavest’ on the basis that Engavest undertook to pay all of the existing and future creditors, including the staff. The continued payment of staff and creditors was so important to me that I ensured that the shares would not be transferred to the new buyers unless they complied with this condition.

Sadly, Engavest has failed to comply with any of the conditions in the agreement and Caterham Sports Ltd (the UK operating company of the F1 team) has had to be put into administration by the bank, with large sums owing to numerous creditors. Our agreement with Engavest was very clear: there was no legal obligation to transfer the shares to them unless certain conditions – which included paying creditors – were met. Those conditions have not been met. Our lawyers have asked Engavest several times to comply with these conditions but they have failed to engage.

If you agree to buy a business, you must pay its bills. They have breached that promise and now, sadly, it is others such as the employees and the fans of the Caterham F1 team that will suffer if the team ceases to race. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case and that a solution can be found.”

Graham Macdonald, Caterham Group CEO:

“We genuinely believed, at the time, that the sale of the team was the best route for the staff and creditors of the Company, as we felt it secured its long term future. The whole agreement with Engavest was based around a low consideration for the business, with easy payment terms so that creditors and staff could be paid. The buyers were made fully aware at the time of all outstanding liabilities. However, it appears to me that they never had any intention of paying these liabilities. I go on to question how anyone who was interested in the long term future of the business would appoint one of their cleaners – Constantin Cojocar – as the sole director and shareholder of the UK operating Company?

We continue to see claims and counter claims from the F1 team which are totally unfounded. Not only have they failed to pay the creditors (and have even left our shareholders to pay some of the creditors on their behalf), but they have failed to pay us anything for use of our factory and site, or anything for the use our brand name. In short the new owners have paid us nothing and now the administrators have been appointed they want to walk away from their liabilities.”

Engavest SA, strongly refutes the allegations of Tony Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald regarding its conduct while trying to purchase Caterham F1. Our statement of earlier today still stands.

Every single condition precedent of the Sales and Purchase Agreement for which Engavest was responsible has been met.

Only the seller, which includes Mr Fernandes, failed to meet his obligations.

All salaries have been paid.

Engavest sold CSL. It did not appoint Mr Cojocar who, we believe, was a former top footballer for Steaua Bucarest during the 1980s.

The claims of Mr Fernandes and Mr Macdonald contradict their own press statement dated 03 October 2014

“Caterham Group wishes to clarify that, following the sale of the F1 business in July, it has no affiliation with Caterham F1 Team”.

That one sentence alone contains two errors:

1, the date was June 29

2, having failed to transfer the shares Caterham Group and Mr Fernandes wholly owned Caterham F1 at the time of the statement, as they do today.

Incidents such as a Caterham Group representative forcibly breaking into a filing cabinet containing our private and confidential documents and the continued refusal to deal with the outstanding loan of Exim Bank and complete the agreement has culminated in Engavest’s total comtempt of Mr Fernandes and his Group executives with whom we entered a deal in good faith.

I do find Fernandez' attempts to make himself look like an innocent party as pretty appalling. If it wasn't for his ego and amateur attitude then Caterham wouldn't be in the mess in the first place. End of story.

It sucks that they've just made the cars look somewhat decent and now the disappear.

That and 20 cars sucks balls. And I can only see that number getting lower soon, despite the arrival of Haas....