Marussia F1 team goes into administration

Marussia had already withdrawn from the US Grand Prix at the weekend

Marussia have become the second F1 team to be placed in administration within days, leaving up to 200 jobs at risk.

Administrators FRP Advisory said the Banbury-based team would continue to operate but had already withdrawn from the forthcoming US Grand Prix.

Caterham, also based in Oxfordshire, was put in administration on Friday and will miss the US and Brazilian races.

Marussia driver Jules Bianchi remains in hospital, following a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, on 5 October.

Bianchi sustained serious head injuries when his car was in collision with a tractor recovery vehicle.

In a statement, FRP Advisory said no redundancies have been made and all staff would be paid in full until the end of the month.

Marussia driver Jules Bianchi is still in hospital recovering from a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix

The Caterham team have failed to score a point in a Formula 1 race since entering the sport in 2010

"The ongoing staff position will however, be dependent on whether the company can secure new investment in the limited time available," it said.

Last week, the company that builds cars for the Caterham Formula 1 team went into administration, putting hundreds of jobs at risk and leading to staff being locked out of the team's site in Leafield.

On Friday, the bosses of Caterham F1 formally agreed to hand over the running of the team to administrators.

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has given both teams dispensation to miss the grand prix meetings in the US and Brazil.

Smallest field

It now looks likely Marussia will take up the offer and also skip the Brazilian race.

Like Caterham, Marussia entered F1 at the start of 2010, albeit under the promise from then FIA president Max Mosley of a budget cap.

Teams were encouraged to operate within a £40m budget in a bid to level the playing field and cut costs.

It helped lure in three new teams, then known as Manor Grand Prix (now Marussia), Campos Racing (that later became HRT) and Lightspeed (now Caterham), but the optional cap was soon scrapped following disagreements within the sport.

HRT went bust at the end of 2012, and now Caterham and Marussia are poised to follow suit unless new buyers can quickly be found.

It means for this weekend's race in Austin there will only be 18 cars taking part, the smallest field since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix.