Last month Luiz Razia was announced as Marussia driver for the 2013 season, but an apparent behind the scenes financial meltdown, resulted in the Brazilian losing his to, highly rated and Ferrari backed, Jules Bianchi for the final seat on the F1 grid.
Razia’s place, at a tail-end team who have yet to score a point after three seasons in the top tier of the sport, had been cast into doubt after he missed last week’s test in Barcelona amid reports of problems with promised sponsorship payments.
“We have found ourselves in a situation where we have had to terminate our contract with Luiz Razia,” said principal John Booth in a statement. “Having made clear the basis on which we must operate in 2013, and given the steps we had taken to put that new structure in place, we had no alternative but to remain true to the principles which we had identified as being key to securing our long-term future.”
The twist was a crushing blow for Razia, after coming so close to seeing his dream come true, but a lifeline for Bianchi after the Frenchman missed out on a Force India race seat to Adrian Sutil earlier in the week.
Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio spoke to Razia after the news broke on Friday, and reported that the Brazilian driver said, “No one died. I’ll sleep today, quiet, knowing that failure was circumstantial and not existential. I’m buying a ticket at the airport to return home to Milton Keynes, and think what I’ll do with my life.”
“I try and learn from this mistake which actually is not a mistake,” added Razia. (Reuters & Apex)