Although various affected parties in Barcelona sought to downplay the severe funding crisis faced by three independent teams, there is no doubt that Formula 1 risked coming catastrophically close to having but a dozen starters in Australia - by far the sparsest grid since that farcical US Grand Prix at Indianapolis a decade ago.
Suggestions of a 'Dirty Dozen' grid were contemptuously brushed aside, however disaster was narrowly averted only after various financial promises were (allegedly) made to Force India, Lotus and Sauber by commercial rights holder Formula One Management, to wit by way of an eventual payday loan brokered by F1 tsar and FOM CEO Bernie Ecclestone.
The uncomfortable truth is these loans bought no more than breathing space, with disaster looming unless the root causes - namely the sport's inequitable revenue distribution, its declining incomes caused by dwindling (live and TV) audiences, a lop-sided governance which disenfranchises half the grid and rampant costs - are properly addressed and brought under effective control.