F1 | Caterham administrators partly paid the team's former employees

Do you remember the caterham, that single-seater with the all-green livery? Today, years later we return to talk about the events that effectively led to the disappearance of that Anglo/Malaysian team in the winter between 2014 and 2015. More than 200 former Caterham employees were in fact partially paid with a small sum of money, while the long legal series that follows the failure of the team inexorably approaches its conclusion. Caterham went into administration in 2014 amid a founder dispute Tony Fernandes and a group of investors who had purchased the team that summer. Administrators Smith & Williamson took control of Caterham during the season, but the team had to miss the Austin and Interlagos races, before a fundraising project helped secure its participation in the season finale in Abu Dhabi . Attempts to continue in 2015 came to nothing, and while some staff went on to find work in other Formula 1 teams or in motorsport more generally, Caterham's assets were sold at auction.

In recent days Motorsport has learned that in early January administrators Smith & Williamson were able to pay 216 staff who had been transferred under TUPE control by Caterham. A delegation of directors made up of Finbarr O'Connell, Henry Shinners and Mark Ford delivered ad Motorsport a statement, which specifies how a payment was made to those employees on January 15th.

“This reflects the years of work undertaken by the directors to resolve the complex affairs of the Caterham Formula 1 company – reads in the note. Many of the resources were subject to international claims and intrigues, and therefore needed to be resolved before they could be made available. Creditors are entitled to receive the equivalent of unpaid wages over the previous four months up to a maximum of £800 in total, plus holiday pay of up to six weeks and some occupational pension pensions.”

However, there is the issue regarding payments to unsecured creditors: these wages are added to company creditors, which would be 25 for a total of 66,8 million pounds: “There is the possibility of a small dividend for unsecured creditors – recital the statement again – and we expect this payment to be paid in the next six months.”