Bernie Ecclestone believes Marussia can still survive and met with a potential investor on Wednesday morning.


A planned sale of the team’s pit equipment and race cars – which former president Graeme Lowdon warned would spell the end – was cancelled earlier this week to allow investment talks to progress.

Sky sources understand talks are at an advanced stage and Ecclestone’s comments will provide a further boost to the beleaguered team.

“I had a meeting with someone this morning that said they want to, and think they can buy Marussia, so that would be good,” he told Sky Sports News HQ in an exclusive interview.

“Caterham, I don’t think there is much chance of saving them, but Marussia there is a chance. Maybe within 10 days I think we will be able to say whether it is going to happen or not.”

The Haas F1 team were rumoured to be behind the bid to save Marussia, but have denied an interest in purchasing any team stating: “Haas F1 Team has no interest in purchasing Marussia or any other team”. Ecclestone’s response was even briefer when asked if Haas were involved, giving only a simple “no”.

However, it is believed that the American squad, which is due to join the sport for the 2016 season, are in the process of purchasing Marussia’s Banbury base and the team confirmed to Sky Sports that they "are in the process of securing a UK base and expect to have everything in place by early February".

Ecclestone also stressed that if Marussia were to survive he would want the team to be competitive and not simply running off the pace at the back of the field.

“We don’t want someone who is just going to limp on, that is just want we don’t want,” he added. “We went through this whole saga at the end of last year and we don’t want to go through it again.”