Caterham F1 has announced that its crowdfunding program has been successful and they will return to the Formula One grid for the season finale at Abu Dhabi. The struggling team raised £1.8 million out of the targeted £2.3 million last Friday, which is good enough to fund the team to fly two cars and 40 employees to Abu Dhabi.
However, there’s bad news for the 230 employees at Leafield as they have been made redundant. The administrator, which took over the team, said the majority of the workforce, unpaid since September 2014, will be released by the team.
Following Marcus Ericsson’s decision to terminate his contract with the team to join Sauber F1 next year, the team has enlisted Kamui Kobayashi to race in the CT05. A second driver will be named soon, with Marussia’s former driver Max Chilton is set to be the favourite. Audi World Endurance Championship driver, Andre Lotterer, who took Kobayashi’s seat in the Belgium GP, has rejected the team’s offer to race in Abu Dhabi.
The team had missed the races in United States and Brazil after the team entered administration at the end of October. While Caterham F1 manages to race in the season finale unlike rivals Marussia F1, it’s remain to be seen if the team will survive beyond 2014.
[Source: GPUpdate, Image Source: Caterham F1]
