Morio / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons (credit links at the end of the content)
We believe that bringing the teams that vanished during the 2000s and 2010s into our series is the perfect way to bring our story of forgotten F1 teams to an end. We started this journey with the teams of the 1990s, and now, after looking back at so many forgotten names from different eras, we have reached the final chapter: Forgotten F1 Teams of the 2000s and 2010s.
We believe we tried to bring every team that no longer exists into this series, and we wanted to make it unique so fans can come back, find the teams, read their stories, and then move on to the next part. At the same time, we wanted you to be able to find everything about these forgotten teams in one place and read through their stories in just 10–15 minutes.
That is what we tried to do here at CarsRave with this series about forgotten F1 teams, as well as with our series about drivers with short careers, which you can find in our F1 Forgotten Drivers category.
Forgotten F1 Teams of the 2000s and 2010s
However, most of the teams from the 2000s are already covered in Parts 4 and 5. In this final series covering the late 2000s and 2010s, only Honda and Brawn are included from the end of the 2000s, while the remaining teams are from the 2010s, most of which disappeared from F1 after only a short period.
The late 2000s and early 2010s were chaotic years in Formula 1. Many teams vanished from the grid as the global financial crisis hit the automotive industry, manufacturer involvement became increasingly difficult to justify, and several new teams arrived without the financial strength needed to survive the reality of modern F1.
In the previous parts, we have already covered teams such as Toyota, Jordan, BAR and others that eventually disappeared after years of competition and heavy spending. That trend continued into this period. Honda, for example, walked away from F1 after years of major investment, while Brawn GP appeared almost overnight, won the World Championship and then disappeared just as quickly. At the same time, several new teams arrived as part of a new generation of supposedly low-cost F1 teams, yet almost none managed to survive in their original form.
Honda: From Factory Powerhouse to Sudden Exit
Honda’s deparature from F1 at the end of 2008 was one of the biggest shocks of the era, the Japanese manufacturer had returned as a full works team after purchasing British American Racing; but the results never matched the enormous investment.
They had the resources, yet its F1 project struggled consistently challenge the established front-runners.
The 2008 season was particularly disappointing, Honda finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of only Force India and Super Aguri’s successor situation was already changing around them.
Then the global financial crisis arrived, the collapse in economic confidence had a major impact, Honda’s management decided that continuing to spend more could no longer be justified, reports suggest that the company spent more than $200 million a year on its F1 operation. In 2008, Honda announced that it would leave F1.
For the people working at the Brackley factory, it looked like the end, but something extraordinary was about to happen!
The Honda That Became Brawn GP
Rather than allowing the entire operation to disappear, team principal Ross Brawn and his management team negotiated a management buyout, the former Honda operation was acquired for a nominal £1, giving the team a chance to survive.
What happened next became one of the greatest fairytales in F1 history, the car originally developed under Honda became the Brawn BGP 001, Mercedes supplied the engines, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello became the drivers.
At the opening race of the 2009 season in Australia, the white Brawn cars stunned the world, Button took the pole and won the race, while Barrichello finished second, and it wasn’t a one-race fluke.
Brawn GP went on to win the Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships in its only season, the ramarkable part was that the team that Honda had considered too expensive to continue had suddenly become the most successful team in F1, Honda walked away, Ross Brawn had brought the remains for almost nothing, and those same foundations produced a championship-winning team!
However, Brawn GP disappeared after just one season, but it didn’t vanish because it failed, quite the opposite, its incredible success made it extremely attractive to Mercedes-Benz.
Mercedes had already been involved in F1 as an engine supplier for McLaren, but they wanted a greater presence in the sport and saw an opportunity to transform successful Brawn operation into its own factory team.
At the end of 2009, Mercedes completed the takeover.
Virgin Racing: A Team Built on an Unfulfilled Promise
Before entering F1 as a team, the Virgin Group first sponsored Brawn GP during the 2009 season. One year later, in 2010, Virgin arrived on the grid with its own Formula 1 team.
Virgin entered the championship expecting that a more affordable F1 would help level the playing field, instead, the reality proved very different, the proposed €50 budget ap was never implemented in the way the new teams had expected, the gap was almost impossible to overcome.
The problem was that F1 is an unforgiving environment for experimentation, especially when a new team has very little money and almost no margin for mistakes, the car struggled with aerodynamic performances and reliability.
Virgin finished its first season without scoring a single point, the situation became difficult to sustain.
From Virgin to Marussia
Virgin’s financial position eventually led to a change in ownership, another sports car manufacturer Marussia Motors acquired a controlling interest, and the team gradually moved away from the Virgin identity.
By 2012, the Virgin name had disappeared completely from the F1 grid, the team was now known as Marussia F1 team.
It wasn’t technically the end of it, instead, Virgin Racing slowly transformed into something else, and that new identity would itself eventually disappear.
Marussia: From Backmarker to Tragedy and Collapse
Name continued where Virgin had left off, Marussia became increasingly involved with the team, but the parent company itself eventually collapsed in 2014, that left the F1 operation in a difficult financial position.
The situation became even more serious when the team entered administration later that year, cars, equipment, and other assets were placed at risk of being sold.
For a moment, it appeared that the Marussia name was finished, but the team received another lifeline.
The connection with Jules Bianchi, one of the important moments in Marussia’s history came at the 2014 Monaco GP.
Bianchi produced an extraordinary drive and finished ninth, it was the team’s first ever F1 points, these two points would become enormously important.
The team returned in 2015 as Manor Marussia, but the joy was overshadowed by tragedy. Earlier, in 2014, Jules Bianchi suffered an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix and sadly passed away several months later in 2015.
From Marussia to Manor
By 2016, the Marussia name had disappeared, the team beame Manor Racing, for a brief period, it looked as though Manor might finally escape the cycle that had consumed the operation for years.
Pascal Wehrlein scored a point at the Austrian GP, putting Manor into 10 place in the Constructors’ championship.
That position was much more important than it appeared, and tenth place could make a major difference to a small team’s survival.
However, Sauber scored points in the chaotic race and moved ahead of Manor, that single result proved devastating, Manor lost the valuable championship position and, with it, a significant amount of expected revenue, the team entered administration in January 2017.
A buyer couldn’t be found, the operation folded, the long Journey that had started with Virgin Racing was finally over!
Hispania Racing: The Team That Never Found Financial Stability
If there was one thing HRT never had enough of, it was money, the team originally entered F1 under the name Campos Meta 1, but financial problems emerged before the team even reached the grid.
Adrian Campos was forced to give up control, and Jose Ramon Carabante took over the operation, it was renamed Hispania Racing, commonly known as HRT.
From the beginning, the team was fighting a battle that was bigger than anything happening on the racetrack, they arrived during the same period as Virgin and Lotus, when the proposed budget cap was expected to make F1 more accessible, once those expectations failed to materialize, the financial difference between HRT and the established teams became enormous.
HRT’s first F1 car was produced by Dallara, and the team was so late preparing for the 2010 season that it missed pre-season testing, at the opening race in Bahrain, HRT’s cars were still being assembled around the paddock.
That was hardly the ideal way to begin a F1 campaign, the team remained at the back of the field for much of its existence, and then the reintroduction of the 107% qualifying rule created another major problems for the team, at the 2011 Australian GP, both HRT drivers failed to qualify.
Ownership changed again when Thesan Capital took control of the team in 2011, the new owners attempted to stablize the operation, but the underlying financial problems remained, the team finished 2012 season without scoring a single point, and they failed to secure the funding necessary to continue into 2013.
Its F1 story was over, the team had started 56 races without scoring a championship point, making it one of the most unsuccessful teams in modern F1 history.
Caterham: The Other 2010 Newcomer That Disappeared
The third member of the 2010 newcomer generation was the team that eventually became Caterham, it originally entered F1 as Lotus Racing, backed by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes.
But the Lotus name was quickly became the center of a complicated legal dispute, there were two very different Lotus identities operating in F1, and the disagreements over who had the right to use the famous name became increasingly bitter.
The F1 operation was renamed Caterham F1 team before the 2012 season, the name changed, but the financial problems didn’t!
Caterham had Renault engines and access to competitive technical components, but it couldn’t close the enormous gap to the established teams, just like HRT and Virgin, Caterham had entered F1 during the era when a budget cap was expected to reduce costs.
You can find out more about the Caterham F1 Team on our website, including one of the team’s most iconic moments, when it launched a crowdfunding campaign known as Refuel Caterham. Fans and small sponsors contributed to help the team return to the grid, and that was enough for Caterham to make one final appearance at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was an extraordinary farewell to a team that had fought so hard to stay alive.
Lotus: A Different Story Entirely
Then there was another Lotus, this is where F1 history becomes particularly confusing, the Lotus F1 team that competed from 2012 to 2015 wasn’t the same team as the Lotus Racing operation that eventually became Caterham.
The Enstone-based Lotus team was the direct descendant of the Benetton and Renault factory operations, it had a completely different history, factory and infrastructure.
And for a while; it was one of the most exciting teams on the grid.
Lotus shocked F1 by signing Kimi Raikkonen for the 2012 season, the 2007 champion had been away from F1 for two years (2010-2011), but his return immediately gave the team enormous attention, and the Lotus E20 proved to be an excellent car.
Raikkonen won the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, giving the team one of its most famous victories, ‘leave me alone, I know what am doing!’.
The following year, he won again in Australia in 2013.
But underneath the success, serious financial problems were developing. Lotus struggled to secure enough sponsorship and investment to sustain its operation, and its financial difficulties became closely linked to Kimi Räikkönen’s contract. Even today, some fans still go back to the story and ask the same question: Did Raikkonen’s contract almost broke Lotus?
By 2014, the situation became dramatically worse for the team, F1 introduced the new turbo-hybrid power-unit regulation, and Lotus struggled badly with Renault, so for 2015, Lotus switched from Renault to Mercedes power.
It was more competitive, but the financial problems continued, and Lotus was running out of time.
Renault Returns and Lotus Disappears
Renault Eventually stepped in… in 2015, the French manufacturer completed its takeover of the Enstone operation, the Lotus F1 identity disappeared after the 2015, for the fans, it looked like another team had vanished.
But once again, the reality was more complicated, the factory survived, the workforce survived, the Enstone operation survived, it simply became Renault, and later, that same operation evolved into the Alpine F1 Team.
The End of an Era
Behind every vanished name is a story of ambitious owners, engineers trying to survive with limited resources. The teams of the 2000s and 2010s may no longer appear on today’s grid, but many of them left something behind.
And with that, we close the final chapter of our forgotten F1 teams series. For the future, we will focus on F1 teams from the 1950s through the 1980s, a new journey that we are still preparing.
Featured Image Credits: Morio / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Other Parts:
PART 5: The F1 Teams of the 2000s That Faded Away
PART 4: F1 Teams of the 2000s That Didn’t Survive
PART 3: The F1 Teams the 1990s Left Behind
PART 2: F1 Teams That Vanished in the 1990s
PART 1: Forgotten Small F1 Teams of the 1980s and 1990s
