Marussia insists it is in best ever financial shape for F1 2013
Marussia boss Graeme Lowdon says his team is financially "more comfortable than ever" ahead of the start of the 2013 Formula 1 season
Although the Banbury-based outfit lost the crucial 10th position in the constructors' championship to Caterham in the final race of the 2012 season, Lowdon says there are sponsorship deals in place that are making the team's future secure.
Last month, Marussia parted company with Timo Glock despite having a contract for the season ahead, suggesting that commercial factors had forced it to let the German go.
Marussia unveiled its 2013 challenger on Tuesday, and despite the lack of sponsors on the car, Lowdon insisted the team is in good shape.
"The worry would be if it was all filled with the same name," Lowdon told AUTOSPORT regarding the lack of sponsors.
"Certainly you'll see some names coming on the car over the next few weeks and onto the season as well.
"We are more comfortable now than we have ever been, both on the technical side and the commercial side.
"If you remember, we didn't do pre-season testing with the new car last year, so it's quite nice to be a bit further ahead this year."
Lowdon also suggested that losing 10th place in the standings has not have a huge impact on the team.
"If you look at the revenue mix for our team it has always been dominated by sponsorship, and the percentage we get from the commercial rights holder is relatively small," he said.
"There's no Concorde [Agreement] at the moment so we don't know what the commercial terms are going to be. It's a smaller part of the stream. We are yet to see what will unfold this year."
The Marussia boss confirmed his team is also yet to receive an offer for a new Concorde Agreement, but said it was still in discussions that could lead to one.
"We don't have a bilateral agreement in place. I understand the other teams do. We currently don't have one, but we are in discussions about the new commercial agreement.
"We are in a discussion with the commercial rights holder, and my guess is it could end up in a Concorde Agreement as opposed to a bilateral agreement. It wouldn't make too much difference to how we proceed in pre-season testing or anything like that."
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