Tuesday, January 26, 2016

News: Marussia F1 cars up for sale

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Formula One cars developed by the team that can trace its roots back to Rotherham are being put up for sale.

Four cars are being made available for sale by a private collector. The grid cars are from the Virgin Marussia Formula Team and form part of a collection spanning the 2010 to 2013 F1 Grand Prix seasons.

The Marussia F1 team began life as Manor Grand Prix in Dinnington, Rotherham. Having secured financial backing from LDC, it became Virgin Racing when they announced a link up with Richard Branson in December 2009. Russian company, Marussia Motors acquired a significant shareholding in 2010 and the team became Marussia Virgin Racing. For the 2012 season, the team became Marussia F1 and operations moved from Rotherham to Banbury in Oxfordshire to be closer to McLaren, their technical partners for the 2012 season.

FRP Advisory LLP were appointed joint administrators to Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, trading as the Marussia F1 Team. Without financial backing the company ceased trading in 2014 resulting in 200 redundancies.

Then in 2015, formal agreement was reached with Manor's creditors through a CVA in order to allow the team to come out of administration, following new investment from businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick. Manor F1 took their place on the grid for the 2015 season.

The cars available for sale include the 2010 VR-01 from Virgin Racing, the 2011 MVR-02 from Marussia Virgin Racing and the 2012 MR01 and 2013 MR02 from the Marussia F1 Team. The MR02 was designed under the leadership of Marussia's technical director Pat Symonds. It was driven by tragic star driver Jules Bianchi.

The vehicles are the latest models on the open market to feature the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) introduced in 2009 and the drag resistance system (DRS) introduced in 2011. The cars are available for sale by private negotiation as a collection of four or as individual assets.
The brochure states: "John Pye Luxury Assets are proud to present a unique opportunity to acquire a quartet of Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix Grid competition cars, upon instruction from a private collector and now available for sale by private treaty.

"All with F1 competition provenance from the Virgin Marussia Formula 1 teams, these four cars form part of an impressive collection spanning the 2010 to 2013 F1 Grand Prix seasons."

Rotherham-born John Booth, a former butcher and single-seater champion, has been team principal since the inception of the team. The Rotherham connection has all but ended with the team confirming in November that Booth would leave the team at the end of last season. Booth said that he was "bidding the F1 paddock farewell for now."

Booth's Manor Motorsport is one of the most respected names in national and international motor racing. His Dinnington operation achieved great success in Formula 3 and Formula Renault and played a major role in the development of several of today's greatest motor racing talents. Formula 1 world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton both graduated from the John Booth school of excellence.

Manor F1 team website
John Pye website

Images: John Pye

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