Formula 1s caterham F1 team are attempting to crowd fund a return to the grid at Abu Dhabi after going into administration. The idea is to try and showcase the team and attract new investment. You can just donate or better still buy parts from 2012/2013 cars.

Story
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/11/07/caterham-seeks-2-35m-fans-race-abu-dhabi/

Crowd funding site
https://www.crowdcube.com/caterham/

No, the idea is to pay off creditors. Anyone who donates is a complete moron.

Quote from Intrepid :

No, the idea is to pay off creditors. Anyone who donates is a complete moron.

WRONG!
Administrators have stated that all purchases/donations will be used to get the team to Abu dahbi. None of the money will be used for creditors and it won't even be used to pay wages. Team are currently working for free in the hope that a buyer will be found and will pay owed wages.

The money is so they can race, collect 10th in the Championship (off Marussia as they aren't finishing the season), get the prize money (£11m) and PAY OFF CREDITORS.

I can't believe how thick people are. 1.5 million pounds worth of pure idiocy. Donate to charity or some actual worthy course, i.e be a smart human.

Quote from Intrepid :

The money is so they can race, collect 10th in the Championship (off Marussia as they aren't finishing the season), get the prize money (£11m) and PAY OFF CREDITORS.

I can't believe how thick people are. 1.5 million pounds worth of pure idiocy. Donate to charity or some actual worthy course, i.e be a smart human.

You maybe right to a certain degree but it's also about saving a team, saving jobs and attracting investment.

Attracting investment? No one will touch Caterham with a barge pole. There's no possible ROI for anyone. Think about it for a second. They have gone to the PUBLIC to try and get money... the PUBLIC. If any investor was serious about buying into the team then why would they need to crowdfund it now. A few million donated by morons won't sway any serious person.

Even if they scrape enough funds to race next year surely they'd have to be designing and building the 2015 car NOW. They obviously aren't which guarantees next year they'll barely scrape the 107% rule

I feel sorry for anyone that has been fooled by this, it's an embarrassment.

There is no roi because it is a donation.

Which drivers are they going to run? Two pay drivers? Barrichello and... chilton?

The banks went to the public for a bail out! Are investors investing in banks? Yes they are!
They need to crowd fund because they are in administration........ADMINISTRATION. They have no money.
A few million in donations is not going to sway investors you are right but that's not what it's about.
If something is up for sale what do you do? You show it to people! Getting them to the grid is more about advertising the team to potential investors on international tv and media. It's about showing investors that there is a team ready to race.

Your last point regarding 2015 is abit worrying but the way I've always understood F1 is that the following years car is already being designed and built halfway through the current season. So who knows how far they got with it eh?

Quote from Hyperactive :

There is no roi because it is a donation.

Which drivers are they going to run? Two pay drivers? Barrichello and... chilton?

I have know idea. but they must know as they are offering dinner with a driver.

Quote from Intrepid :

Donate to charity or some actual worthy course, i.e be a smart human.

Donating to charity is exactly the same principle as this shizz..

Actually this is better because you can see the end result instead of financing some stupid retarded management board which are on the ground laughing about all donations.

But who cares about F1, it's pretty much dead.

I'm with Intrepid on this. I think it's clear that Caterham can't sustain its own existence as an F1 team, and £1.5million is not going to change that. These teams have had their shot and it hasn't worked out, time to let them go. Some people value their existence on the grid, but not me. Sure they employ people, but they add nothing to the show except some cute curiosity, and they certainly can't be credited with bringing on up and coming talents as Mr E.Jordan seems to think they should be. They sell their seats to the highest bidder (nothing wrong with that except it doesn't fit the cliched "under-dog we should all root for" picture all that well does it).

If F1 really wants teams like this, they need to change something, but to be honest I don't, and I'm not sure they do either. Caterham could have made a go of it, but obviously they don't have the muscle behind them to do it, so that's that.

Quote from Velocity. :

The banks went to the public for a bail out! Are investors investing in banks? Yes they are!
They need to crowd fund because they are in administration........ADMINISTRATION. They have no money.
A few million in donations is not going to sway investors you are right but that's not what it's about.
If something is up for sale what do you do? You show it to people! Getting them to the grid is more about advertising the team to potential investors on international tv and media. It's about showing investors that there is a team ready to race.

Your last point regarding 2015 is abit worrying but the way I've always understood F1 is that the following years car is already being designed and built halfway through the current season. So who knows how far they got with it eh?

I think the proceeding 17 races demonstrated that already and they didn't attract any investors. Crowdfunding to do one race (and this whole Powell thing) only highlights that the team can't actually go racing. It proves it's not a sustainable business model.

Anyone can see this is just to guarantee the prize money so they can pay off creditors. It's really as simple as that. If someone is going to invest in the team it'd be irrelevant whether they were at the Abu Dhabi race. No investor is THAT stupid to invest and be influenced because of some dodgy crowdfunded race.

"Oh look I see this race team is doing some F1 GP at Abu Dhabi... well I fancy sinking 100 million on that" - does anyone really think anyone is THAT stupid?

Alice Powell hopeful of Caterham F1 debut in Abu Dhabi

Quote from sinbad :

I think it's clear that Caterham can't sustain its own existence as an F1 team, and £1.5million is not going to change that. These teams have had their shot and it hasn't worked out, time to let them go.

Maybe not just fault of Caterham but also result of how strange F1 works. F1 finances are totally messed up and system how money is distributed is just broken. Each team has private contracts with F1 or something, and the money is not split evenly, big teams are favored. For example Ferrari gets several times more money than Caterham just for being Ferrari and taking part.
Either way, F1 is shoveling around SO much money, there should be a way to work it out in a better way...

They are now selling former drivers race suits.

If I ran F1 I'd value the participation of Ferrari much more highly than that of Caterham too!

I know what you're saying, but I don't think firing money at every small team regardless of their ambitions or business-sense is the way to do it. You want to make it possible for them to make it, but you can't just give them money for nothing.

Marussia got the result that was worth millions at Monaco, and still couldn't make it. It's not as simple as "give them more money". If a team is run really badly it shouldn't be rewarded.

They should cut costs, for certain, but F1 has been held to ransom on a number of occasions, and the big teams which have, at great cost, guaranteed their participation and therefore guaranteed the existence of F1 as we know it are reaping the benefits. That makes sense to me.

Quote from cargame.nl :

Quote from Intrepid :

Donate to charity or some actual worthy course, i.e be a smart human.

Donating to charity is exactly the same principle as this shizz..

Actually this is better because you can see the end result instead of financing some stupid retarded management board which are on the ground laughing about all donations.

But who cares about F1, it's pretty much dead.

Not all charities have management boards like that. Some are are quite obviously worthy, unlike Caterham creditors.

Quote from TypeRacing :

Alice Powell hopeful of Caterham F1 debut in Abu Dhabi

l0l !!

Their going to Abu dahbi.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/30055510

I'm afraid this will do nothing except show how insignificant and irrelevant the participation of this kind of team at this level really is.

There must be a way. These teams were enticed into F1 with promises of low engine costs and a budget cap plan, none of which actually happened. The amazing thing is how long they made it for. Cost caps HAVE to happen or F1 is done as no new teams will be able to afford it, apart from hoping for instant success. Right, bound to happen.