The Caterham Formula One team have made 230 staff redundant while still planning to race in next weekend’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, an administrator said yesterday.

Finbarr O’Connell told Reuters that the team, who went into administration last month, would take 40 people to the Yas Marina circuit with their expenses paid with money raised through a crowd-funding initiative.

Caterham raised 1.92 million pounds of a targeted 2.35 million pounds by last Friday, with the deadline reset to midnight on November 23, but still face an uncertain future.

O’Connell said the redundancies had come at the request of a majority of the staff who had wanted to start a formal claims process that takes at least a month before any payments are made, if the team is not sold.