F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone "condemned the Manor Grand Prix team for rushing to the Melbourne grid" without a chance of starting its cars, according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. Ecclestone "will effectively fine the squad that rose from the ashes of the Marussia team" by making it pay tens of thousands of pounds toward its travel expenses to Melbourne. Ecclestone "has bent over backwards to help Manor back on to the grid after the original team, funded by Andrey Cheglakov, a Russian millionaire using his Marussia brand, collapsed in October." Self-made energy entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick "has taken over the business and gave an assurance he would put the team back on the grid amid encouragement from the rest of Formula One." But greetings "turned to frowns in Melbourne as the red and white Manor cars sat motionless in the garage." Suspicions immediately centered around the £30M ($44M) in prize money "owed to the team from last season." The sum will only be paid if the team made a "reasonable effort" to race in Australia. Ecclestone "allows teams to miss three races under their contract and Marussia used up that pass at the end of last year." Some team principals "warned Ecclestone that they remain to be convinced by Manor’s business plan but do not want to go public in case they are seen as wet blankets trying to decry the return of the sport’s smallest team." Ecclestone "has already taken a harder line and will not want excuses at the Malaysian Grand Prix on March 29." If there is a second no-show, the £30M payment "could be in danger." However, Manor Team Principal John Booth said that "the team will be ready in Kuala Lumpur after taking huge strides towards solving their problems." He said, "The progress was colossal, just not quite enough. We start setting up at the [Sepang] circuit on Tuesday and, for sure, we will be ready to run on Friday" (
LONDON TIMES, 3/17).
