While there are no championships at stake at this weekend’s Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, for one team simply being in the UAE at all feels like winning the race.
Twelve months ago the team villa at Yas Marina Circuit that was supposed to be occupied by the Marussia team sat vacant.
The team had gone into administration due to mounting business debts and failed to compete in the last three races of the season – the United States, Brazil and then Abu Dhabi – and its future looked bleak.
But under a new owner in businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick, they made it back on the grid for the 2015 season-opener in Australia in March, rebranded as Manor Marussia, and Sunday’s race at Yas Marina will see them complete the season, a real sense of achievement to the British team.
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Graeme Lowdon, the team’s sporting director, said: “Going back to Abu Dhabi this year will be something very special. We tried so hard to get there last year but didn’t manage it and going back this year certainly a lot of people didn’t think it would happen again, so when we get off the airplane in Abu Dhabi we will be very pleased to get there.”
Lowdon, speaking before making news public that he is leaving the team after Sunday’s race, told The National about the different challenges, setbacks and highs they had faced on their journey to Abu Dhabi this year.
Administration
Lowdon is frank about what had led the team to the brink.
“We had a financial problem that the directors and management had to take care of, and it was not necessarily a Formula One problem,” the Englishman said. “Companies in all kinds of industries can face this kind of problem, and as a management team, we had to face that.
“It was a very difficult time and we, as directors, we took the move to put the company into administration so that protected the company from various challenges to its position and allowed us time to find a way to restructure the business.
“That did take some time and in that period the administrators had to let all the staff go, me included, so it was a really difficult time. But from my point of view I could see there was still a tremendous opportunity to save everything that had been established and built over the previous four years.”
Tragedy
A difficult time for the team had been made worse before going into administration by one of their drivers, Jules Bianchi, suffering severe head injuries after crashing into a recovery vehicle during the Japanese Grand Prix last October. The Frenchman eventually succumbed to his injuries after nine months in a coma in July.
“In the background of the financial problems we were also dealing with an emotional pressure because we had the terrible accident in Suzuka in 2014 with Jules Bianchi.
“At that stage Jules was in hospital in Nice and the accident had left him in a critical condition. It was a very difficult time for everyone emotionally as well as from a business point of view. We had to manage that situation, too, so it was a very unusual period for us.”
Abu Dhabi 2014
The team had tried in vain to make last year’s race at Yas Marina Circuit, but attempts to get a budget together fell short.
“We were very, very keen to make it out to Abu Dhabi, for a lot of reasons,” he said.
“We got extremely close to making it to Abu Dhabi, we had to make separate freight arrangements to get everything sorted, because all our equipment was in the UK and all the other team’s was out in Abu Dhabi, and I’d say we got to within 10 minutes of me leaving for the airport before an arrangement that we had in place with a particular sponsor fell through. So, unfortunately, we could not make it to Abu Dhabi and it was a huge disappointment for everybody in the team. I know that was a real low point.”
Fighting back
Despite the fact that he had been made redundant in November, Lowdon and other leading members of the team, including team principal John Booth, worked to find a way to fund the team, with former backer Andrey Cheglakov involved.
The arrival of Fitzpatrick, the founder of OVO Energy, the UK-based gas and electricity supplier, provided the financial impetus for the team to come out of administration in February, just a month before the start of the season.
“We went through financial restructuring the business and we were able to restructure the debts and bring the company out of administration and back into normal operation,” Lowden said.
“We were extremely lucky that we were able to bring back a lot of the people who had worked for the team only a few weeks and months earlier.”
Manor Marussia made it to the season-opener in Australia, though they did not complete a single lap all weekend as both cars suffered technical problems.
Since then they have taken part in every race, with Roberto Merhi’s and Alexander Rossi’s 12th-place finishes, in Britain and the United States respectively, their best results.
“People underestimate what is required to operate a Formula One team.” Lowdon said.
“There is a new team coming in next year and they have spent two or three years and have had an awful lot of assistance, and money, to get their team up and running,” Lowden said of the US-based Haas F1 team.
“That is a reflection of just how complex this business is, so the challenge was enormous ... It is not often that companies actually come out of administration successfully so that in itself was a real success story.”
Competing
The team were given dispensation by the FIA, F1’s ruling body, to run their 2014-specification car, and they used a year-old Ferrari engine unit too, meaning, as a consequence, they have often been two seconds off the pace of the next slowest car. But there is more optimism for next season, with the cars powered by a Mercedes engine.
“This year was not about performance. It was all about making sure we were still here,” he said.
“We knew that, we accepted it and we viewed it as a better class of problem.
“The alternative would have been insolvent liquidation, no race team, people out of work, and they have all families.
“We knew we would struggle this year in terms of competitiveness but we are looking forward to a big step forward in performance for 2016.”
Bianchi
The French driver’s death came just before the Hungarian Grand Prix in July and led to some of the most poignant scenes of the year as the drivers, teams and Bianchi’s family honoured his memory with a minute’s silence before the race in Budapest.
Bianchi had scored the team’s only points in F1 to date when he finished ninth in the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix, and Lowdon has no doubt the sport has lost a great talent.
“I rated him very highly as a driver. Of course, we will never know what he could have achieved.
“I think he deserved to be in Formula One, not just because of his driving talent, as to be good in Formula One you have to have that extra capacity not just to race hard but have another 10-15 per cent capacity to compute everything that is going on, and Jules definitely had that.
“Not only did he have an infectious smile, he had an infectious confidence.
“His car crew would derive strength from that. They knew they had a guy who would push hard, and that builds and builds.”
Racer’s spirit
As to why the team had fought so hard to remain in F1, Lowdon smiled, and said: “This is all we do. We race. We are focused on this completely.
“I do get saddened when we have an industry at present where people are choosing to leave. Then you look at our situation and how we fought so hard to stay in this industry. We believe in it. We believe in its long term future.
“I think every team up and down the pit lane, no matter who they are, whether they are owned by manufacturers or others are staffed by real racers, people who are completely passionate about the job they do and I think it would be a real shame if those people are not allowed to show those skills and talents.”
Achievement
The hectic calendar of 19 races in eight months has given little time for rest, and Lowdon acknowledged that it will be only once Sunday’s race is over that the enormity of racing this season will be realised.
“I guess because Formula One is relentless in its schedule we have never had a chance to sit back and think about it,” he said. “The time for that will be in Abu Dhabi.
“When the flag drops in Abu Dhabi that will be probably the first time we can sit back and reflect on what has happened in the past year and a half.
“Maybe we will have a day off after Abu Dhabi.”
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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