Marussia F1 team posts loss of £57.6m for 2012 season

The Marussia F1 team made a staggering loss of £57.6m for the 2012 calendar year – having lost some £44.9m in the previous season.

The team, officially registered as Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, had a turnover of just £28.2m, which was up from £27.3m in 2011.

In its annual report the team says that the increased loss reflected “further significant investment in people, technology and infrastructure.”

To date the huge losses have been covered by loans from the shareholders. The report notes that as of April 13 this year “loans, accrued interest and fees of £138,939,000 were capitalised. This has improved the group’s balance sheet considerably and makes the company a more attractive prospect to potential investors and sponsors.”

The report adds that “the directors are… confident that the combination of formal shareholder support together with further investment and sponsorship will enable the company to meet its debts for a period of at least 12 months from the date of signing these financial statements.”

The team remains confident that the future is brighter.

“Because of the way we structured the business in the year ending 2012 a lot of money from our major shareholder and sponsor Marussia went in as loans,” team CEO Graeme Lowdon told this writer. “Post balance sheet date nearly £140m of those loans were subsequently capitalised – which means that instead of that sitting on your balance sheet as a debt owed back to Marussia, it’s turned into share capital.

“It looks as if we have a lot of debt, but a significant proportion of that debt has now been removed. Money that is now coming in from Marussia is coming is as sponsorship instead of loans.

“If you look at Red Bull nearly £100m a year comes in from their parent company by means of sponsorship instead of loans. If you were to remove that element from their accounts they would go from a nominal profit to an enormous loss.”

Meanwhile Lowdon says that the team is hoping to finally secure a Concorde deal with Bernie Ecclestone: “You could argue that it’s been highly detrimental to our business. We would hope that we would reach some form of agreement so that we’re on a level playing field with the other participants.”