The remarkable tale of F1’s unlikeliest team ‘boss’

It was one of many extra bewildering sights of the 2014 Formulation 1 season, as Finbarr O’Connell took his place within the FIA group principals’ press convention on the Abu Dhabi GP. O’Connell was working for insolvency agency Smith & Williamson, who in flip had taken on the administration of Caterham Sports activities Restricted.

O’Connell arrived, wearing white and inexperienced Caterham equipment, after the group raised £2.3million by a crowdfunding marketing campaign so it might make the ultimate race of the season. Caterham’s crippling funds had meant it missed each the US and Brazilian GPs, because the coffers had been dry. By elevating funds, O’Connell had hoped that he would have the ability to showcase Caterham to any potential patrons.

Now a decade on, Autosport caught up with O’Connell, one in every of F1’s unlikeliest group bosses, to ask him for his lasting reminiscences of what turned out to be Caterham’s swansong on the Yas Marina Circuit.

“I’ve 4 lasting reminiscences from the Abu Dhabi GP,” he says. “The primary is of the Caterham F1 group spirit. These women and gents all got here along with solely their bills being paid due to their love for the group. I bear in mind saying to the press in Abu Dhabi that this group had two engines, the Renault energy unit below the bonnet and the women and men within the group who gave their all for one thing which was rather more than only a job for them, which was their group, their life and their satisfaction.

“The second reminiscence was sitting on the pit wall with my ‘cans’ on my head being in direct contact with the drivers and the race group. When a significant issue developed with Kamui Kobayashi’s automobile, I gave the ‘Field Field’ instruction for him to come back in.

“My third was getting a cellphone name from the FIA to tell me that Will Stevens couldn’t race within the GP as a result of he didn’t have a superlicence. As a contingency, I contacted a pal of mine who was the proprietor of one of many different groups and requested him if I might ‘borrow’ one in every of his drivers if I wanted a second driver. In the long run, Will’s superlicence got here by and he was in a position to go to the ball.

O’Connell has nothing however heat phrases to say about his Caterham colleagues who struggled in opposition to insurmountable odds

Photograph by: Patrik Lundin / Motorsport Photographs

“My fourth was working the monitor in my Caterham inexperienced runners. All I can say is it appeared like a good suggestion on the time!”

O’Connell’s look within the FIA press convention was certainly a surreal second. He sat on the panel which included Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and then-team bosses Marco Mattiaci (Ferrari) Claire Williams and Otmar Szafnauer (Power India), joined by Lotus deputy Federico Gastaldi.

“I used to be there to attempt to rescue an F1 group and I felt nothing however assist and friendship from them and from the opposite F1 group principals,” remembers O’Connell. “Following the Abu Dhabi GP, I flew to Switzerland to attend a gathering with the FIA that was about supporting me as a lot as doable in my efforts to attempt to restructure or promote the Caterham group.

“Bernie did not need the world’s motor racing press questioning who that man was shaking fingers on the grid with the Caterham drivers and it being defined that I’m a restructuring specialist, which he in all probability noticed as a company undertaker” 
Finbarr O’Connell

“I pitched the concept of one of many different F1 groups buying Caterham and adapting it as a second group for his or her model. The draw back would have been a really completely different automobile, however the upside would have been the diminished value of getting into one other group and the velocity of getting that new group on the grid.”

O’Connell had raised the funds to get Caterham to Abu Dhabi and attended the press convention, however one place he wasn’t allowed to go was the grid. That was blocked by former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, who took the view that an administrator on the grid would ship the fallacious message about F1.

“Bernie wished Caterham on the grid and racing at Abu Dhabi, particularly as Marussia was not going to be racing,” explains O’Connell. “He assisted the group with organising the transport of all of the racing equipment, though I did pay handsomely for that. Bernie additionally helped organise our tyres and petrol.

“However, because the ringmaster for this wonderful travelling circus, Bernie additionally known as all of the photographs proper right down to who he would difficulty pit passes to and him not wanting me on the grid. Bernie did not need the world’s motor racing press questioning who that man was shaking fingers on the grid with the Caterham drivers and it being defined that I’m a restructuring specialist, which he in all probability noticed as a company undertaker.

Stevens made his debut for Caterham in Abu Dhabi, however O’Connell was conspicuous by his absence from the grid…

Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar

“He additionally blocked my lawyer from coming into the paddock, but it surely turned out that he acted for one in every of Bernie’s relations, so he was ultimately allowed entry…”

Sadly, no purchaser was ever discovered for the group, regardless of loads of curiosity. Caterham was in the end cut up up, its elements and gear bought off, the identical destiny assembly its Leafield Technical Centre.

“Sadly, no celebration was able to accumulate this ready-made F1 group on the time,” provides O’Connell. “It was damaged up and the automobiles and engineering elements had been bought by public sale. Leafield Technical Centre was put available on the market and bought to the best bidder and the racing group all discovered locations in different groups and in different racing companies.”

The Leafield web site stays in a state of disuse and disrepair. What might have been an excellent residence for a contemporary F1 group is now more likely to be transformed right into a luxurious hideaway.

“I do know that the brand new homeowners had main difficulties in getting planning permission for the scheme which they favoured,” says O’Connell. “I now perceive that builders are bidding to assemble a luxurious vacation park there and the proposed improvement would comprise 51 vacation cabins, eight barn-style cabins and two loft homes which will likely be created out of an current constructing.

“The idea is to create ‘first-rate hideaway experiences’, together with creating a brand new indoor swimming pool, a spa, out of doors scorching tubs, altering rooms, a store, a brand new bar and restaurant, a coated open socialising area and studio area.”

O’Connell’s time in F1 was brief, but it surely was most positively vibrant. It’s additionally left a final impression, as he indicators off his e mail to this author with the phrases “finest, F1n”.

O’Connell’s efforts to avoid wasting Caterham proved unsuccessful and Abu Dhabi 2014 grew to become its farewell outing

Photograph by: Andy Hone