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Manor survived an FIA investigation in Australia, but now faces the wrath of F1's commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone. As the former Marussia team was summoned to the stewards in Australia, boss John Booth acknowledged the "scepticism" that Manor never actually intended to turn a wheel at the season opener.
Ecclestone had already warned that Manor - and its $50 million in official 2014 prize-money - would be "history" if it missed one more race under its existing commercial contract. Manor bosses said all weekend in Melbourne that efforts were being made to qualify and race the two cars, but ultimately a single engine was not even fired.
After the FIA investigation, the stewards declared that the team "used all reasonable endeavours to ensure that its cars were able to compete" in Melbourne. Therefore, "no further action" was taken. But on Monday, F1 supremo Ecclestone declared that there would in fact be other consequences for Manor.
"We should have never ever, ever allowed Manor to do what they've done," he told Reuters. "They had no intention of racing in Australia. Zero. They couldn't have raced if someone had gone there with a machine gun and put it to their head."
Ecclestone, 84, said the consequence for Manor will be a bill for the cost of transporting the team's 30 tonnes of equipment from the UK to Australia. "They will have to pay their way to get there and get out of there," he declared. "They are not competing so they have to pay for that." (GMM)
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G. Zhou
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Replies (2)
Login to replykhasmir
Posts: 893
I've really had it with Bernie and his stupid, ignorant, selfish comments. Can't he give Manor a break? They earned those points last year so for me they have earned the money as well. Whatever the small letters in the contracts say.
As far as I know the transport costs are included in the entry fee, which Manor has paid. He can't make them pay twice. Or maybe he can since it seems he is permitted to do and say just about whatever he wants...
BtwnDitches
Posts: 204
I saw this coming when Maror Marussia F1 didn't field a car and was called to the stewards offices. The general rules has always been: don't show-up for transport (at Bernie's expense) if you can't or don't intend to run the race. Otherwise, dead or dying teams could require the rights holder (Bernie, et al.) to ship them around the world, from venue to venue and pit to pit, to fluff their brands but contribute nothing to F1.
But two good news - (1) by showing up in Melbourne, Manor gets the $50 mm in 2014 prize money (now minus transport costs), and (2) they are now much closer to Malaysia, so will save lots of money on the the next transport leg. So, they made out so far as I can tell.