Marussia and Caterham: The battle at the end of the grid

Jules Bianchi of Marussia

While everyone is concentrating at the furious battle going on at the front of the grid, unbeknownst to most, an equally furious battle is raging at the back of the grid for the coveted 10th place in the Constructors championship between the two remaining new teams, Caterham and Marussia. 10th place in the Constructors championship is not a place most of the established teams would take pride in finishing; for most teams it would mean the ultimate disgrace. But unlike the established teams, Caterham and Marussia have a lot to gain (or lose) by finishing 10th in the championship, least of which is the guaranteed monetary benefit. For small cash strapped teams like them, that money may be the difference between having financial security and the ability to field a competitive car to fading away ingloriously out of the sport.

Caterham and Marussia, though completely different teams, have a lot of similarities among them. Both the teams were founded by enterprising entrepreneurs – Marussia by Richard Branson of Virgin fame, while Caterham by Tony Fernandes of Air Asia fame. Both the teams had teething problems when they first came in and have undergone a complete branding change. The two teams are minuscule compared to the more established teams like Ferrari or McLaren. They have approximately 250 employees each which when compared to the close to 1000 people that Mercedes employs, is close to nothing. The two teams have also recently moved into their new headquarters, the results of which are beginning to show this year. Marussia F1 have moved to Banbury, former headquarters of Ascari while Caterham F1 have moved to Leafield, home to former F1 teams Arrows and Super Aguri.

The start of the 2013 season has been a bit of a surprise. For the first time, Marussia have come out all guns firing and have actually put up a fight against Caterham. After being soundly beaten by Marussia over the first 2 races of the year, the Caterham team finally decided to call in the cavalry and roped in their former star driver, Heikki Kovalainen, to help set up their car. Caterham then duly beat Marussia for the first time since the season began. But it is still advantage Marussia after the first four races of the season.

The Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, which is traditionally the start of the European leg of the F1 championships, is usually the race where most of the teams bring big updates. With Pat Symonds, the ex-Renault Engineering Director, big things are being expected from their update. Meanwhile, it is rumoured that Caterham’s move to their new facility did not go ahead too smoothly. As a result, the car that is being raced is just a small upgrade of the car that raced in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012. They are rumoured to be bringing a big update package which would almost result in a B spec car.

With Barcelona just a few weeks away, this is an interesting battle to keep an eye on as what these teams don’t have in finance and man power, they more than make up with their spunk and hard racing.