MOTORSPORT: F1 crisis – two teams in administration

The Formula One team for which Jules Bianchi was racing when critically injured in the Japanese Grand Prix little more than three weeks ago, Marussia, went into financial administration overnight.

In the latest financial crisis for the sport, Marussia is the second F1 team to enter administration within four days, following fellow tailender Caterham. It was already known these two teams would miss this weekend's United States Grand Prix and the following weekend's Brazilian GP.

A BBC report has said of the three new teams that entered F1 in 2010: "HRT [Hispania Racing Team] went bust at the end of 2012, and now Caterham and Marussia are poised to follow suit unless new buyers can quickly be found."

And Max Mosley, who was president of motorsport's governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for 16 years, said Marussia and Caterham "may not be the last" teams to collapse.

The F1 grid will have only 18 cars at Austin, Texas, at Interlagos in Sao Paulo, and in all likelihood at the season finale in Abu Dhabi on November 23.

While French driver Bianchi remains in a critical condition with severe head injuries after his Marussia car hit a recovery vehicle during the wet Japanese GP on October 5, hundreds of jobs – perhaps about 400 full-time – are at risk from the Marussia and Caterham predicaments.

History suggests these teams are unlikely to pull through, which could mean only 18 cars, or less, for next year's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 4½ months – on March 15. That's unless F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone activates provisions for remaining teams, or at least the biggest-budget frontrunners like Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, to field a third car each.

However, that would require the agreement of all teams, even Marussia and Caterham – and such unanimity is unknown in F1. It is believed F1 is obliged to have at least a 20-car field at each GP under its arrangements with the FIA.

The new Ferrari-aligned American team of industrial tools tycoon and NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas is not due to debut until 2016.

Marussia's majority shareholder is Russian billionaire Andrei Cheglakov, whose Marussia sports car company closed in April. The Marussia F1 team originally was known as Virgin Racing, although Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson was never strongly associated with it.

London's Telegraph newspaper reported before Marussia was put into administration that two British-Indian brothers, Baljinder Sohi and Sonny Kaushal, who made their fortune in the steel industry, were interested in rescuing it.

"We are very close to a deal, but it has to be the right price," Sohi said. "We have put in a serious offer and we will see what happens."

The Telegraph mentioned a figure of £55 million – A$100.7 million – for a takeover of Marussia.

Mosley, who championed the creation of the new teams in 2010, said F1 was "not a fair competition any more" and that small teams having to buy this year's new hybrid power units from others owned or backed by major car manufacturers were being crippled. It was reported last week that Caterham's engine – or power unit – bill for using Renault engines this season would be US$38 million (A$43.2 million).

Repeated attempts to curb F1 costs through the imposition of caps have failed.

"The big problem is that the big teams have so much more money than teams like Caterham and Marussia," Mosley said.

"In the end, they [teams such as Caterham and Marussia] were bound to drop off – and they may not be the last.

"From a sporting point of view, the sport should split the money equally and then let the teams get as much sponsorship as they can.

"A team like Ferrari will always get more sponsorship than Marussia, but if they all get the same basic money then they all start on a level-playing field – particularly if you have a cost cap where you limit the amount of money each team is allowed to spend.

"I'm in favour of the greener [hybrid] engines. The mistake was not saying to the big manufacturers that you can spend as much as you want on research but the maximum you can charge per season [to customer teams] is something like £3-4 million instead of the £15-20 million, which I believe it is now."

Mosley said F1 could endure an 18-car grid in the short term but that it would be a problem longer-term because "there is something fundamentally wrong".