Scrape
06-22-2017, 08:58 AM
In 2014, the staff was escorted out of the building by security. They never returned. http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a29499/explore-the-abandoned-offices-of-the-failed-caterham-f1-team/?src=socialflowFB
If there's a team out there competing in Formula One, chances are its history is a winding, convoluted mess, a sordid tale of ego-driven billionaires, offshore investors, naked ambition, and intellectual property being traded like Pokemon cards. Such was the fate and demise of Caterham F1, the ignominious team that competed for three brief seasons until 2014. Here we go: when the legendary Team Lotus imploded, sometime in the mid-1990s, David Hunt—brother of F1 superstar James Hunt—snapped up the rights, then sold them in 2010 to Malaysia businessman Tony Fernandes, who owned Lotus parent company Proton, thereby gaining a link to Colin Chapman's historic past under the name of Lotus Racing, all the while Group Lotus, the road car builder's parent company, and an outfit called Genii Capital, joined forces with the former Renault F1 team to form Lotus-Renault GP, so there were two teams named Lotus competing in the 2011 season, and Lotus Racing—now renamed to Team Lotus—was allowed by a British judge to race, but only Lotus-Renault was allowed to use the historic black-gold livery, and afterwards in 2012 Lotus-Renault became simply Lotus F1, and Fernandes—who snapped up Caterham Cars, while he was at it—renamed his team Caterham F1, and raced for two years, during which it failed to win a single one of its 56 races entered, and went bust in 2014, but at least along the way they served some damn good halal food (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8537685.stm).
In 56 races, the team managed to beat two rival teams right out the gate, go through eight drivers, introduce a grotesque nose (https://adamcooperf1.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/adam-cooper-caterham-2.jpg) in a season of grotesque noses, piss off Bernie Ecclestone by raising money through crowdfunding (http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/bernie-ecclestone-slams-caterham-crowdfunding-efforts), which surprisingly worked with sponsorship from the Windmill Inn pub in Littleworth, West Sussex (http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/littleworth-pub-helps-caterham-make-final-f1-race-1-6428873); and rack up £20 million in debt before getting sold to a Romanian football star (who had once worked at the factory cleaning floors (http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/how-caterham-f1-collapsed/)) for £1 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2014/12/01/caterham-f1-team-sold-for-just-1-60/#3cca80217d10), or approximately 1/3 the price of a pint at the aforementioned Windmill.
Racing ain't easy. Proof of that is right at the Caterham F1 offices, sitting derelict since 2014.
According to Racecar Engineering (http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/how-caterham-f1-collapsed/), detailing the subsequent sale and legal battles, the team's assets were seized by a group ominously called "The Sheriffs Office." Staff on site were told to switch off laptops and leave the factory at 1530hrs on the 1st October. The factory in the village of Leafield, just outside of Oxford, was locked down. "Employees at Leafield leaving work for the day had their cars searched by private security contractors…Reportedly a number or former elite British Army soldiers in their ranks. The factory was then locked down by the security and the staff have not returned." Among other things seized included the Ansible Motion S1 simulator and spare cars for the Japanese and Russian Grand Prixes.
Bring on the urban explorers, then.
"This place is one of the strangest places I've ever explored," writes our intrepid explorer, going by the username "mookster," while posting on Derelict Places (http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/misc-sites/33240-caterham-f1-headquarters-june-2016-a.html). (Tagline: "Documenting Decay.") "It's not old, it's one of the cleanest locations I've ever been in, and it smells very strange. All the power is still connected and works, so all the lights come on when you flick switches. This is a double-edged sword though as it also means you can't get through certain doors that required a keycard to unlock. Never the less we got around almost the whole site, the undisputed highlight of which is the old virtual reality racing simulator, unfortunately the actual F1 rig was removed when the assets were seized in 2014 but it's still a great space, and unfortunately the only room that doesn't have power!"
More photos are on the explorer's Flickr page (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157668909586372).
We wonder what it smells like. Burnt tires, dashed hopes, nasi kandar (http://thehalalfoodblog.com/penang-part-i-nasi-kandar-mohamed-raffe/). The mighty complex really does have the vibe of its 40 employees being ushered out the door one afternoon: clean carpets, logos still intact, paperwork miscellany stacked on tables. Even shorn of high-tech equipment, the ominously-named "Leafield Reality Centre" looks like the world's largest Forza setup. Get some go-karts in the building and run them down those long, wide hallways. Certainly seems tempting, doesn't it?
2014 may not be so long ago, and the building hasn't had time to settle into asylum-like hauntings. But between this and the abandoned Bugatti factory in Campogalliano, Italy (http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/videos/a29405/bugatti-eb110-romano-artioli-history/), these buildings stand like monuments to that eternal, nagging hypothetical: what could have been.
If there's a team out there competing in Formula One, chances are its history is a winding, convoluted mess, a sordid tale of ego-driven billionaires, offshore investors, naked ambition, and intellectual property being traded like Pokemon cards. Such was the fate and demise of Caterham F1, the ignominious team that competed for three brief seasons until 2014. Here we go: when the legendary Team Lotus imploded, sometime in the mid-1990s, David Hunt—brother of F1 superstar James Hunt—snapped up the rights, then sold them in 2010 to Malaysia businessman Tony Fernandes, who owned Lotus parent company Proton, thereby gaining a link to Colin Chapman's historic past under the name of Lotus Racing, all the while Group Lotus, the road car builder's parent company, and an outfit called Genii Capital, joined forces with the former Renault F1 team to form Lotus-Renault GP, so there were two teams named Lotus competing in the 2011 season, and Lotus Racing—now renamed to Team Lotus—was allowed by a British judge to race, but only Lotus-Renault was allowed to use the historic black-gold livery, and afterwards in 2012 Lotus-Renault became simply Lotus F1, and Fernandes—who snapped up Caterham Cars, while he was at it—renamed his team Caterham F1, and raced for two years, during which it failed to win a single one of its 56 races entered, and went bust in 2014, but at least along the way they served some damn good halal food (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8537685.stm).
In 56 races, the team managed to beat two rival teams right out the gate, go through eight drivers, introduce a grotesque nose (https://adamcooperf1.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/adam-cooper-caterham-2.jpg) in a season of grotesque noses, piss off Bernie Ecclestone by raising money through crowdfunding (http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/bernie-ecclestone-slams-caterham-crowdfunding-efforts), which surprisingly worked with sponsorship from the Windmill Inn pub in Littleworth, West Sussex (http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/littleworth-pub-helps-caterham-make-final-f1-race-1-6428873); and rack up £20 million in debt before getting sold to a Romanian football star (who had once worked at the factory cleaning floors (http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/how-caterham-f1-collapsed/)) for £1 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2014/12/01/caterham-f1-team-sold-for-just-1-60/#3cca80217d10), or approximately 1/3 the price of a pint at the aforementioned Windmill.
Racing ain't easy. Proof of that is right at the Caterham F1 offices, sitting derelict since 2014.
According to Racecar Engineering (http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/how-caterham-f1-collapsed/), detailing the subsequent sale and legal battles, the team's assets were seized by a group ominously called "The Sheriffs Office." Staff on site were told to switch off laptops and leave the factory at 1530hrs on the 1st October. The factory in the village of Leafield, just outside of Oxford, was locked down. "Employees at Leafield leaving work for the day had their cars searched by private security contractors…Reportedly a number or former elite British Army soldiers in their ranks. The factory was then locked down by the security and the staff have not returned." Among other things seized included the Ansible Motion S1 simulator and spare cars for the Japanese and Russian Grand Prixes.
Bring on the urban explorers, then.
"This place is one of the strangest places I've ever explored," writes our intrepid explorer, going by the username "mookster," while posting on Derelict Places (http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/misc-sites/33240-caterham-f1-headquarters-june-2016-a.html). (Tagline: "Documenting Decay.") "It's not old, it's one of the cleanest locations I've ever been in, and it smells very strange. All the power is still connected and works, so all the lights come on when you flick switches. This is a double-edged sword though as it also means you can't get through certain doors that required a keycard to unlock. Never the less we got around almost the whole site, the undisputed highlight of which is the old virtual reality racing simulator, unfortunately the actual F1 rig was removed when the assets were seized in 2014 but it's still a great space, and unfortunately the only room that doesn't have power!"
More photos are on the explorer's Flickr page (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157668909586372).
We wonder what it smells like. Burnt tires, dashed hopes, nasi kandar (http://thehalalfoodblog.com/penang-part-i-nasi-kandar-mohamed-raffe/). The mighty complex really does have the vibe of its 40 employees being ushered out the door one afternoon: clean carpets, logos still intact, paperwork miscellany stacked on tables. Even shorn of high-tech equipment, the ominously-named "Leafield Reality Centre" looks like the world's largest Forza setup. Get some go-karts in the building and run them down those long, wide hallways. Certainly seems tempting, doesn't it?
2014 may not be so long ago, and the building hasn't had time to settle into asylum-like hauntings. But between this and the abandoned Bugatti factory in Campogalliano, Italy (http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/videos/a29405/bugatti-eb110-romano-artioli-history/), these buildings stand like monuments to that eternal, nagging hypothetical: what could have been.