The Company That Designed And Built Caterham F1's Cars Has Been Sold For Just £1

It’s emerged that Caterham Sports Limited was sold for a minuscule £1 back in September. The Leafield-based outfit went into administration in October, but a crowdfunding project raised the necessary funds for Caterham to return to the grid at the 2014 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Prior to the team entering administration, it was bought by Constantin Cojocar, a former footballer and ex-director of a Romanian transport and logistics company, who Tony Fernandes claims was promoted from cleaner to Caterham Sports’ director.

According to Pitpass, a witness statement supplied by Cojocar as part of Caterham Sports’ administrative proceedings said:

“There is one issued share in the Company, and I purchased this on 24 September 2014 for £1. I am now the sole shareholder and director of the Company.”

Remember the whole mess surrounding who actually owned the team? Swiss-based consortium Engavest SA claimed shares purchased from former team owner Tony Fernandes to take over 1Malaysia Racing Team, the Malaysian business that owns Caterham’s F1 grid slot, had not been transferred, meaning he was still in charge. Both parties then disagreed on whether the sales and purchase conditions had been met.

In all the confusion, it was unclear who should cover 1MRT’s costs, and hence bills were not paid - including Caterham Sports Limited’s fee, meaning the company could not pay its own bills. Cojocar said Romainian investors were due to provide £2 million per week to finance Caterham Sports but were put off by the legal proceedings, including bailiffs seizing equipment.

When the company, which had around £16.2 million of debt, went into administration in October, Cojocar left. 1MRT followed shortly after. Both Caterham Sports Limited and 1MRT were taken over by administrator Smith & Williamson, who then launched the crowdfunding project that got the team back on the grid.

Finbarr O’Connell, joint administrator, remains confident a buyer can be found, recently revealing there are several interested parties and that Caterham has been given dispensation to run its 2014 car next season, which should cut costs and give the team more time.