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Tony Fernandes Bids Caterham F1 Goodbye, Closes Twitter Account After Announcement

Twitter is literally burning with 102 octane race-spec fuel after Tony Fernandes tweeted that "F1 hasn't worked, but love Caterham Cars." Anyway you look at it, this cryptic tweet from the Malaysian-British entrepreneur appears to signal either Caterham's exit from Formula 1 or the imminent sale of the team.
Tony Fernandes' Twitter account 1 photo
Photo: twitter.com
This dramatic turn of events isn't all that surprising if you take into account that since it entered the highest tier motorsport in the world, Caterham F1 didn't manage to score a single constructors' or drivers' championship point. Nada! Not a single point in 47 races the team competed in since the 2010 season, when Caterham F1 was known as Team Lotus.

You may remember that at the end of May, after a Malaysian publication reported that the Caterham Group is up for grabs for just £350 million ($589 million), Tony Fernandes replied with a statement that goes like "the Caterham Group is not for sale. We love what we build and we are always looking for further investment… That is normal business. That does not mean we are selling." However, he did drop hints to the media earlier this year that if Caterham F1 won't step up its game, then it's game over for the team as a whole.

Fernandes is currently the group chief executive officer and director of AirAsia Berhad. But while AirAsia does just fine from a financial point of view, the Queens Park Rangers Football Club he also owns reported a whopping £65.4 million ($110.16 million) loss for the fiscal year ending May 2013. This is purely speculation, but maybe Tony wants to sell Caterham F1 in order to save his football club from a big financial disaster.

If you think about it for a second, QPR finished 4th in the Football League Championship from the 2013-2014 season. Compare that to the constant 11th/last place adjudicated by Caterham F1 in the constructors' championship since 2010 and you get a glimpse at what Tony Fernandes is thinking right now.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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