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Can crowdfunding save Caterham?

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Deciding to appeal to fans to enable a team to race was always going to be a ballsy move . But Formula One is a sport founded on ballsy moves and thinking outside the box, finding new ways of solving old problems.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner may think that the idea of asking fans for money is beyond the pale, but in 2012 the Milton Keynes based team went to their fans with a begging bowl (on behalf of the Wings for Life charity), asking for financial donations. The Faces for Charity project saw 25,000 donors' faces on the RB8's livery during the British Grand Prix, having done the same in 2007.

It may have been for a charitable cause, but who's to say that helping to save more than 200 jobs - not to mention the knock-on effect to Caterham's creditors - is not also a good cause?

But the real question is will it work?

Whether or not the team are able to raise more than £2 million in seven short days, the #RefuelCaterhamF1 project is being organised by interim team principal and administrator of Caterham Sports Limited Finbarr O'Connell. As administrator, O'Connell's job is to get as much money together as possible to pay off CSL's creditors - not to manage a Formula One team.

As someone both inexperienced in and unfamiliar with the world of Formula One, O'Connell appears to be unaware of a major stumbling block in his future: the official FIA entry list for the 2015 season.

A provisional version was released in the run-up to the Brazilian Grand Prix, and by its very nature the provisional list is by no means a concrete document of 2015's F1 entrants. At the head of the press release listing entries is a line reading "*Provisional list subject to confirmation by the FIA that the conditions of entry are respected."

But it is in the body of the list that the biggest hurdle appears. Caterham's entry is listed as belonging to the Malaysia-registered company 1Malaysia Racing Team SDN BHD which will run the CF1 Caterham F1 Team. And as we have all become far too aware in the back and forth between team founder Tony Fernandes and the Engavest rescue effort helmed by Colin Kolles, it's not exactly clear who owns what.

There is - or was - a separate 1Malaysia Racing Team (UK) Limited company registered in the UK, but that entity changed its name to Caterham Sports Limited… on December 2, 2013.

It is an interesting detail, given the ongoing confusion surrounding the ownership of businesses bearing the Caterham banner and connected to the Formula One team through shared owners, supply-chain deals, and so on.

What does appear clear is that as far as the FIA is concerned on its provisional entry list, the "Caterham" entry is still held by a company registered in Malaysia, and not by any of its British off-shoots. That may change when the final entry list is published over the winter, but until the true holders of the F1 entry are confirmed by the FIA, any crowdfunding efforts may well be for naught.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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