It was one of many extra bewildering sights of the 2014 System 1 season, as Finbarr O’Connell took his place within the FIA staff principals’ press convention on the Abu Dhabi GP. O’Connell was working for insolvency agency Smith & Williamson, who in flip had taken on the administration of Caterham Sports activities Restricted.
O’Connell arrived, wearing white and inexperienced Caterham equipment, after the staff raised £2.3million by a crowdfunding marketing campaign so it might make the ultimate race of the season. Caterham’s crippling funds had meant it missed each the US and Brazilian GPs, because the coffers have been dry. By elevating funds, O’Connell had hoped that he would be capable of showcase Caterham to any potential patrons.
Now a decade on, Motorsport.com caught up with O’Connell, considered one of F1’s unlikeliest staff bosses, to ask him for his lasting recollections of what turned out to be Caterham’s swansong on the Yas Marina Circuit.
“I’ve 4 lasting recollections from the Abu Dhabi GP,” he says. “The primary is of the Caterham F1 staff spirit. These women and gents all got here along with solely their bills being paid due to their love for the staff. I keep in mind saying to the press in Abu Dhabi that this staff had two engines, the Renault energy unit below the bonnet and the women and men within the staff who gave their all for one thing which was far more than only a job for them, which was their staff, their life and their delight.
“The second reminiscence was sitting on the pit wall with my ‘cans’ on my head being in direct contact with the drivers and the race staff. When a significant issue developed with Kamui Kobayashi’s automobile, I gave the ‘Field Field’ instruction for him to come back in.
“My third was getting a cellphone name from the FIA to tell me that Will Stevens couldn’t race within the GP as a result of he didn’t have a superlicence. As a contingency, I contacted a pal of mine who was the proprietor of one of many different groups and requested him if I might ‘borrow’ considered one of his drivers if I wanted a second driver. Ultimately, Will’s superlicence got here by and he was capable of go to the ball.
O’Connell has nothing however heat phrases to say about his Caterham colleagues who struggled in opposition to insurmountable odds
Photograph by: Patrik Lundin / Motorsport Pictures
“My fourth was working the observe in my Caterham inexperienced runners. All I can say is it appeared like a good suggestion on the time!”
O’Connell’s look within the FIA press convention was certainly a surreal second. He sat on the panel which included Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and then-team bosses Marco Mattiaci (Ferrari) Claire Williams and Otmar Szafnauer (Pressure India), joined by Lotus deputy Federico Gastaldi.
“I used to be there to attempt to rescue an F1 staff and I felt nothing however assist and friendship from them and from the opposite F1 staff principals,” remembers O’Connell. “Following the Abu Dhabi GP, I flew to Switzerland to attend a gathering with the FIA that was about supporting me as a lot as attainable in my efforts to attempt to restructure or promote the Caterham staff.
“Bernie did not need the world’s motor racing press questioning who that man was shaking palms on the grid with the Caterham drivers and it being defined that I’m a restructuring specialist, which he in all probability noticed as a company undertaker” Finbarr O’Connell
“I pitched the concept of one of many different F1 groups buying Caterham and adapting it as a second staff for his or her model. The draw back would have been a really completely different automobile, however the upside would have been the lowered value of coming into one other staff and the velocity of getting that new staff on the grid.”
O’Connell had raised the funds to get Caterham to Abu Dhabi and attended the press convention, however one place he wasn’t allowed to go was the grid. That was blocked by former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, who took the view that an administrator on the grid would ship the improper message about F1.
“Bernie needed Caterham on the grid and racing at Abu Dhabi, particularly as Marussia was not going to be racing,” explains O’Connell. “He assisted the staff with organising the transport of all of the racing equipment, though I did pay handsomely for that. Bernie additionally helped organise our tyres and petrol.
“However, because the ringmaster for this superb travelling circus, Bernie additionally referred to as all of the pictures proper right down to who he would subject pit passes to and him not wanting me on the grid. Bernie did not need the world’s motor racing press questioning who that man was shaking palms on the grid with the Caterham drivers and it being defined that I’m a restructuring specialist, which he in all probability noticed as a company undertaker.
Stevens made his debut for Caterham in Abu Dhabi, however O’Connell was conspicuous by his absence from the grid…
Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar
“He additionally blocked my lawyer from coming into the paddock, nevertheless it turned out that he acted for considered one of Bernie’s family, so he was ultimately allowed entry…”
Sadly, no purchaser was ever discovered for the staff, regardless of loads of curiosity. Caterham was in the end cut up up, its components and gear offered off, the identical destiny assembly its Leafield Technical Centre.
“Sadly, no celebration was ready to amass this ready-made F1 staff on the time,” provides O’Connell. “It was damaged up and the vehicles and engineering components have been offered by public sale. Leafield Technical Centre was put in the marketplace and offered to the very best bidder and the racing staff all discovered locations in different groups and in different racing companies.”
The Leafield website stays in a state of disuse and disrepair. What might have been a perfect dwelling for a contemporary F1 staff is now prone to be transformed right into a luxurious hideaway.
“I do know that the brand new house owners had main difficulties in getting planning permission for the scheme which they favoured,” says O’Connell. “I now perceive that builders are bidding to assemble a luxurious vacation park there and the proposed improvement would comprise 51 vacation cabins, eight barn-style cabins and two loft homes which might be created out of an present constructing.
“The idea is to create ‘first-rate hideaway experiences’, together with creating a brand new indoor swimming pool, a spa, outside scorching tubs, altering rooms, a store, a brand new bar and restaurant, a lined open socialising area and studio area.”
O’Connell’s efforts to save lots of Caterham proved unsuccessful and Abu Dhabi 2014 turned its farewell outing
Photograph by: Andy Hone
On this article
Ben Hunt
System 1
Caterham F1
Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information e-mail updates on these matters
Subscribe to information alerts
