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Caterham and Marussia held merger talks

Caterham and Marussia are the only two remaining new teams which entered in 2010 after the demise of HRT © Sutton Images

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Caterham has confirmed to ESPN it held talks with Marussia about merging with the team during the winter.

"Caterham F1 Team can confirm that talks took place with Marussia F1 Team over Christmas 2012 about a possible merger," the team told ESPN in a statement. "The team gave the proposal due technical and operational consideration, however it was soon clear that a mutually beneficial solution could not be achieved.

"Caterham F1 Team has a partnership in place with Renault and Renault Sport F1, the facilities in Leafield that were purchased and relocated to in Leafield in 2012, an array of blue-chip commercial partners and a workforce gaining cohesion and experience every day. These factors put our team in a very strong position to tackle all the upcoming challenges ahead."

Marussia's financial problems are well known after the team openly admitted it was forced to replace Timo Glock with a pay driver. However, at one stage during the winter, members of the team's hierarchy held talks with Caterham with a view to potentially being taken over by Tony Fernandes' team.

Marussia has yet to sign the latest commercial agreement and Bernie Ecclestone confirmed to The Times that: "I have everything prepared here for them to sign now.

"It is not a problem. But they have not been happy and they almost merged with Caterham, so that made me wonder what was happening."

Marussia's sporting director Graeme Lowdon confirmed to Sky Sports that talks between the two teams took place, saying: "I can confirm that discussions took place. I wasn't involved in them and as I understand it, the conclusion was unacceptable to our shareholders. So nothing happened."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.