Former Caterham staff begin legal action against team

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In the round-up: Former employees of Caterham who were dismissed when the new management took over have begun proceedings against the team.

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Ex-Caterham staff start legal action (BBC)

“A group of ex-Caterham employees have issued employment tribunal proceedings against the team claiming unfair dismissal, their lawyer says.”

Belgium 2014 – race edit (F1)

A few new bits of unbroadcast team radio audio include Hamilton being told his “position is safe” before the contact with Rosberg, then more of his reaction to it (“I can’t believe he hit me”) and asking afterwards “was it a racing incident?” There’s also some more of Alonso’s radio, including him complaining about being forced off the road by Magnussen.

Bottas set for new Williams deal

Valtteri Bottas: “I don’t see a reason to look around at this moment.”

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Comment of the day

Toto Wolff said Mercedes could impose more than a “slap on the wrist” on Nico Rosberg, but what might their undisclosed “disciplinary measures” involve?

The thing is, all that really can be done is a slap on the wrist since anything to hinder the driver can hinder the team’s outlook as well (i.e. constructor points).

I’d do something like remove FP1 and FP2 time in favor of a young driver so that offending drivers lose out on practice/setup time at the track, but ultimately still have the equipment to get a high qualifying spot and race finish.

It doesn’t seem like all this matters when the drivers are ultimately left free to race anyway; hopefully they both learn from this experience and are a bit more careful around each other.
Steven (@Steevkay)

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On this day in F1

Kimi Raikkonen scored his most recent victory in Ferrari overalls five years ago today in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Giancarlo Fisichella had taken a surprise pole position for Force India, but following a Safety Car restart he was powerless to stop Raikkonen from passing him with KERS.

Even so he pressured Raikkonen all the way to take not only Force India’s first podium, but their first points too.

Image © Caterham/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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49 comments on “Former Caterham staff begin legal action against team”

  1. COTD spot on.

    Not confirmed but there’s whispers that a drive at Caterham is 300 000 euros per race. That means if every F1 fanatic member donates £14, Keith could get an F1 drive!

    1. I didn’t factor in pounds to euros, it would only take £11 per member!

      1. No superlicense, I’d bet… :)

    2. That’s a lot of cash for 1 lap !
      Ask Lotterer !

      But anyhow’s , I’m in!
      Where do I send my money,

      He’ll end up like Kamui with a huge stash of public funds

    3. Regarding the COTD, I guess he could only miss FP1 which will not really cost him that much since young drivers can’t race in FP2.

    4. I read on BBC, that Rosberg’s punishment probably is a simple fine.

    5. I’ll be glad to donate, but is Keith eligible for superlicense? I think US GP would be the best choice as he already drove at CoTA last year, so he knows the circut. That could give him advantage over few rookies ;)

    6. I think Keith needs a Super License. If there was not a limit for the number of drivers a team can run per year, they could make good money with that but the limit being at four, their can get more than 1,2 million EUR, but they already have two drivers so the maximum they can get from this is 600 k EUR…

      Let’s put Montoya in that car! (After he drops 1/3 of his current weight)

      1. [Correction]

        I think Keith needs a Super License. If there was not a limit for the number of drivers a team can run per year, they could make good money with that but the limit being at four, they can’t get more than 1,2 million EUR, but they already have two drivers so the maximum they can get from this is 600 k EUR…

        Let’s put Montoya in that car! (After he drops 1/3 of his current weight)

    7. Caterham used their friend to advertise that there’s a vacant seat in the team, although I would bet that Caterham didn’t really want Lotterer to wear the car…

  2. I really hope the former employees at Caterham win.

    I used to have a lot of respect for this team, even when they have been an utter disappointment, but gradually over the year, I have lost it all.

    1. Although on the whole I hate the rule, times like this do make me glad the ‘four drivers per season’ rule is in place.

      In reality I think a team should be able to race who they want when they want (providing it is within the contracts with the drivers of course), but I like Kamui too much.

      1. I’m not sure if the “four drivers per season” rule covers all of the practise sessions – if not, I can see Caterham selling off Kobayashi’s seat for drivers willing to pay to drive in the first practise session.

        1. I don’t think it is including the practise sessions :/

    2. I feel the same.

    3. @strontium I hope they’ll lose because I don’t think mediocrity should be rewarded. They spent years earning their wages and producing very little, the higher hierarchy’s should be responsible for not leading, as the budget and tools were there.

      1. I don’t understand. This is about unfair dismissal rather than failure to be rewarded.

        1. Breach of contract as they are going for more than the max at an IT maybe more f1 techs should join prospect which represents some specialised sporting groups of workers premier referees for one

      2. @peartree Most of them are probably just doing what they are told really.

        And as @matt90 correctly said, this has nothing to do with what they do. It’s not a question of being rewarded. If they have been unfairly dismissed then that is the problem. It has nothing to do with how well the car has done.

      3. So is it ok if your boss fires you for no reason, no compensation, sues you, because his company isnt the top of the world?

  3. Formula Indonesia (@)
    30th August 2014, 1:38

    Agree with COTD, anyway I think Bottas can stay with Williams as long as they still have fast car.

    1. COTD is wrong, this is a undisclosed, behind the scenes photo of Rosberg’s punishment:
      https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/10592821_10203410032225356_5083476012643103839_n.jpg

      1. Brilliant….

      2. Furthermore: pic

      3. Formula Indonesia (@)
        30th August 2014, 13:02

        nice @gicu, anyway how many times did Nico have to write that??

      4. LOL …good one mate!

  4. I still remember the 2009 Belgian GP clearly. Back at that time, Force India was THE slowest car of the field and had never even scored points. Then I turn on qualifying towards the end of Q2. What? Fisichella into Q3? No, forget that, FISICHELLA ON POLE?! And then he very nearly won the race. That was crazy. It’s almost as though the Sauber this year all of a sudden qualified in the front 2 rows in perfectly normal conditions, and finished on the podium. AMAZING!

    1. @mashiat You forgot that the FI was competitive all 2009 it wasn’t just the Belgian GP, you were thinking of 2008…

      1. I looked it up and it’s true. That podium was the first points scored by FI.

    2. @mashiat Yes, and then they did dreadfully for the rest of the year, while the next race the podium man Fisichella went to Ferrari to be teammates with the man who had just beaten him! (Although in the process destroying his career).

      1. @strontium Actually, they didn’t do dreadfully. In the very next race in Monza, Adrian Sutil got a 4th place and the fastest lap of the race, after qualifying 2nd on the grid. And then they did abysmally for the rest of the season.

      2. Mr win or lose
        31st August 2014, 17:07

        Partly due to their strong Mercedes engines they were really fast at the high-speed circuits. However, they had been pretty strong earlier in the season. Fisichella performed really well in Monaco and England, where he was just outside the points.

  5. A sad affair but the new nose looks so much better.

  6. I think the disciplinary action would be something like Hamilton will not be forced to share his data for 2 out of the remaining 7 race weekends, thus giving him slight advantage.

    1. Oeh that would actually be a good one! It would still hurt MERC a little because they don’t do everything to maximise performance of both cars but then again, with the lead they have in the constructor’s it wouldn’t be too bad.

  7. Regarding Caterham: Any info on whether the concerned employees are working at Caterham through outsourcing (which is vital in answering the question of whether Caterham’s got anything to answer to)?

    1. The team have claimed in the past that “Caterham F1 Team’s staff are employed by a company that is a supplier to the company that holds its F1 licence”.

      However, there is a counter claim from those suing Caterham that this is not correct (which is located here https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/29/caterham-sue-former-staff-misrepresentation/ ).

      Their representative states that the contract of employment explicitly states that Caterham F1 is ‘the trading name of the Employer’. If their claim is correct, the fact that Caterham appears to be explicitly named as the employer would suggest that those employees were not hired by an outsourcing company but directly by Caterham.

  8. ColdFly F1 (@)
    30th August 2014, 9:14

    I thought this was the first round-up without comments on the 2 silver cars, until I read the COTD.

    Maybe tomorrow will go into history as the first day without milking the RosHam incident.

    1. Oh come on. If the two championship contenders colliding on the track and falling out off the track isn’t worth milking, then I don’t know what is.

      May I speak out for all those that have enjoyed this past week while F1 has been in the global press.

      1. +1

        We all love F1 and we all love a big fight for the DWC. If there is intruige around that fight for the DWC it’s gonna dominate F1 news…. if you don’t like that or are tired of it, then simply stop reading it. Don’t bother any F1 untill qualy because Thursday and Friday the questions drivers get will still be about the incident. Also don’t complain HAM amd ROS commemted on it during those first two days because both MERC drivers get asked QUESTIONS they can’t choose to not awnser (except for Kimi who just doesn’t eventhough it’s mandatory for every F1 driver to awnser the press on set moments in the weekend, especially Thursday)

      2. ColdFly F1 (@)
        30th August 2014, 14:34

        @john-h, to be honest I liked it as well.
        Might even miss it next week.

        However, it got a bit boring and repetitive reading all the comments from either HAM or ROS fans shouting the loudest why the other guy was at fault.
        Overall the commenting on this site has gotten a bit worse over the past week.

        1. @coldfly Good point well made. Last couple of days have been a bit ridiculous but it should die down a bit now that merc have – for the time being at least – diffused the tension somewhat.

          Let’s see what happens at Monza ;)

  9. I heard Rosberg’s punishment is that he has to wear Hamilton’s HipHop Hat at the next race.

    1. Someone close to a Mercedes tells me Nico has to do the washing up at Monza. He’s wearing the yellow gloves already, after all.

      And well said Valtteri – plenty of unfinished business at Williams, Massa’s still around to make him look better, and I thought the McLaren rumours were rubbish anyway – he’d be mad to go there at the moment.

      1. Sorry to ruin the joke, but his gloves have been that blue/green colour from the Petronas sponsorship this year.

  10. People have been wondering whether it is actually possible to punish a driver without hurting the team’s results. I think there is: Line up some choice PR assignments for him, like very cheesy commercials or embarrassing appearances. I think many people would enjoy seeing Rosberg dressed up as Big Mac or Goofy in Disneyworld.

    1. Maybe if the driver is Raikkonen; drivers like Ricciardo might actually like it.

  11. It looks like Caterham will have a lot of problems…

Comments are closed.