British sports car specialist, owned by Malaysian aviation entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, has sold its interest in Formula One.
Ownership of the Caterham F1 team has been sold to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors although the rest of the Caterham Group – Cars, Composites, Technology & Innovation, Caterham Racing (GP2), Caterham Moto Racing Team (Moto2) and Caterham Bikes are unaffected and remain with Fernandes and his partners at the helm.
The price has not been disclosed but, under the terms of the sale, the F1 team will continue to race under the Caterham name and will remain based at Leafield Technical Centre, Oxfordshire.
The new owners are being advised by Romanian Colin Kolles who has been involved in several F1 teams including Jordan, Spyker and Force India. Former F1 driver, Christijan Albers, assisted by Manfredi Ravetto, will take over the day-to-day running of the team.
There has been speculation over the past two months that Fernandes may be considering selling off all of his interests in Caterham Group, although he has denied this, but the sale of the F1 team could allow him to realise his vision of expanding the niche maker into a global car company with a wider range of models.
It will also free up funds to allow Caterham to continue to develop its new two-seat sports car which was being co-developed with Renault until the French company pulled out of the project earlier this year.
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By GlobalData