Caterham F1 Team
Administrators acting on behalf of Caterham's Formula 1 team say they are 90% sure that the squad will compete at next weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Caterham has been looking to raise £2.35m through a crowd-funding project and while they remain around £1m short of that target - which they must reach by the end of Friday - Finbarr O'Connell, from administrators Smith & Williamson, say that deals are being finalised which should result in the squad making it to the season finale.
"What we will have and what we are negotiating – and why these things always go to the end – is that we are negotiating drivers' contracts at the moment and also sponsorship contracts," O'Connell told Crash.net, as well as confirming that four drivers are in negotiations over a seat.
"It's been agreed that those funds will go in to the crowd-funding initiative. We're very hopeful that those will complete today and they will increase the figure substantially, and so substantially that even though we'll still be a bit short that [joint administrator] Henry Shinners and I will – if that happens – make a decision to go and try to raise the last bit of money to cover all the costs over the run-up over the next week.
"That's our plan. So the travel containers are all being filled at Leafield now by the race team. Trucks are in place to bring them to the airport, so that's how confident we are that we are going to go."
