"Operating with the smallest budget in the paddock, I think we can be very proud of what we've achieved," the team boss says
Monday 16 December 2013 16:59, UK
Lightning won't strike twice will it? That was the fear for Marussia ahead of the Brazilian GP. As far as F1's newbies are concerned, tenth place in the Constructors' Championship is all-important and Caterham had snatched it from their grasp just five laps from the end of last year's race.
Booth's assertion of a team cutting their cloth according to circumstances comes in spite of a record £57.6million loss in 2012 - one they say reflected "further significant investment in people, technology and infrastructure". Marussia claim the eye-watering figure was further skewed by loans from their parent company, debt which has since been turned into share capital. Accounting finesse aside, though, Booth maintains the team have never come close to folding. "No, we've never been in that position," he asserted. "That's never crossed our minds. It's not been easy, don't get me wrong - there's probably six teams in this paddock that don't find it easy - but we've never been close to that. Our chief shareholders have been very supportive, always." Budget concerns even dominate talk of Marussia's drivers. As promising as Bianchi is, there's no doubt his Ferrari links have played a part in the team's new powertrain deal. Max Chilton, meanwhile, has been - and probably will always be - dealing with the pejorative 'pay driver' tag. Yet Booth seems happy enough with the young Englishman, who became the first rookie to finish every race in 2013. Will he stay on? "We are very close with Max, very close," he said. "He wants to stay and we want him to stay so it's a matter of sorting the details out really. "We like the lad and he's done a great job, particularly in the second half of the year. I think he's very comfortable here and very happy here." According to Booth, what makes Marussia's tenth-place finish all the more satisfying is that, with an eye on next season's technical shake-up, they had to turn the development tap off early. "The problem with a team of our size is that building a 2014 car from scratch has taken all our resources," he said. "So from Barcelona onwards, we haven't really brought any updates to the car. We've brought small updates but nothing major. "We've put all our resource and efforts into our 2014 car - which is on schedule. In fact, it's ahead of schedule. So we had to make that choice. Some teams have that choice but they have a parallel development plan going; we don't have that luxury." The switch to a new formula featuring smaller V6 turbo engines and enhanced energy recovery systems does, of course, have a heavy cost associated with it - one which Christian Horner wondered whether the small teams could cope with when he was asked about the subject in Brazil. "Impossible," was the adjective bandied by the Red Bull team boss but while Booth stresses that Marussia have planned ahead, he also questions the FIA's decision to 'go green' while economies are still experiencing sluggish growth at best. "The technology is wonderful, it's the first thing that F1's done that's really green ever, I think," he said. "To go at the same speed and the same distance on two-thirds of the fuel is a massive achievement. "But it may be that the timing is not great for Formula 1: the world economy is not recovering properly yet, and we're always two or three years behind - either the depression hitting us or the turnaround taking us with it. So it's probably not great timing." Even so, next year's car is ahead of schedule and Ferrari are "proving to be a bloody great company to work with. They even supplied us information we needed before we'd signed the contract, because they knew our deadlines were getting too late for the engine stage. That was amazing." But what about the paddock soothsayers who reckon that Renault and, particularly, Mercedes will steal a march over the Prancing Horse? "I suppose there is a chance that one of them may not get it quite right," Booth admitted. "But they've all got some very clever engineers working within set parameters for two or three years now. So I'd be amazed if they haven't come to similar solutions for most of their problems." With the most profound changes for a generation offering the prospect that F1's competitive order, while not turned on its head, might at least be given a hefty jolt, Booth is even optimistic that Marussia can make their biggest step yet. "I hope we're not battling for tenth place next year - we could be in the pound seats," he said. "We definitely chose the right partner; I'm 100 per cent sure. I haven't got the slightest doubt it won't be right. If it's not right instantly, it will be right." Marussia's cars are being constructed at their base in Banbury, which they moved into a couple of years ago. "It's not McLaren but we're very proud of what we've done with it," Booth said. It's an understated comment that reflects both the team and their boss. Hailing from Sheffield, the 59-year-old didn't become interested in motor racing until his mid-20s and worked as a butcher for years whilst satisfying his newfound passion in Formula Ford racing. And let's face it: the fact that Manor Motorsport is named after South Yorkshire's largest housing estate hardly suggests that Booth dared even think about F1 when he formed the team back in 1989. It doesn't evoke a desire to shoot for the stars, does it? "There's opportunities in life that come along; you know that if you don't take it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life," Booth attested. "The circumstances just fell right for us and so we had a go." That Marussia are still having a go, having originally signed up to a £29million formula but asked to compete with teams who now spend ten times that amount, is testament to lots of attributes - fighting spirit not least. Whether they'll gain an advantage under 2015's proposed cost cap - indeed, whether the cap will ever see the light of day - is anyone's guess but on the evidence of the season just gone, Booth is convinced that progress is being made. "We've made great strides this year and we're very happy where we've been. Formula 1 is not easy; Red Bull took over a race-winning F1 team with a limitless budget and it still took them five years to win a race. That's an indication of how difficult Formula 1 is," he added. "So operating with the smallest budget in the paddock, I think we can be very proud of what we've achieved."