Caterham and its assets have been put up for sale

This afternoon it was been announced that Caterham's assets have been put up for sale by the team's administrators, ending its slim hopes of returning to the grid in 2015.

Administrator Smith & Williamson has placed crucial equipment, including its 2014 car, up for an auction sale commencing on March 11, four days before the opening race in Melbourne. The news comes just a day after former rivals Marussia announced it is on the verge of exiting administration in time for the opener in Australia.

The assets are being auctioned by Wyles Hardy & Co, with pit lane equipment, a race simulator and race and hospitality trailers among the items that are being auctioned on their website. The impending auction does not guarantee a return is impossible as their rivals Marussia cancelled one of its own last month. But this does suggest hopes of saving the beleaguered team have been abandoned.

As we know, Caterham went into administration in October and missed races in the United States and Brazil as a result. It returned for the 2014 finale in Abu Dhabi thanks to a crowd-sourcing initiative which saw it race thanks to the fund-raising effort of fans.

It was thought such an initiative would be the best way to attract possible buyers but that was not the case, despite Smith & Williamson's Finbarr O'Connell's defiant statements just last month that the team could still be saved. The team joined the grid in 2010 but failed to score a point in its tenure in Formula One.

Overall, the situation at Caterham currently is that this isn't no big shock for us at all. As we all know, Caterham have been given more time than their rivals Marussia to try and gain new owners and investment for the team and the consequence of that despite their being talks with several parties is that a deal has failed to materialise in the timeframe possible.

Despite being given more time than they were initially allowed, the administrators have tried their best to secure the future of the team (using for example the Crowdfunding scheme that got them to race in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi) in the timescale that they have been given to secure their future in the sport and there is no nothing more that they can do for them now than put the team and its assets up for sale.

That is now only option left is to sell off what they have remaining of the team sadly in order to recoup and repay the debts that they have occurred during their time in the sport. Let us remember also that Formula One is a business first and foremost and if you don't perform on the track currently, the money you get at the end of the year will be smaller than say a big team like Ferrari for example which will impact on your budget even if you have money problems already present.

However sad this might be, many pundits and fans didn't want to see the demise of the Caterham team this way; but at the end of the day, the administrators and everyone associated with the team tried their best to secure the future of the team using everything they had at their disposal and under the timeframe that they have avaliable to them.

And it hasn't paid off for them and that's a shame but it's the only option left for the Caterham team now in order to pay off its debts for as money as possible, settle everything that needs to be settled legally and sadly as a result will no longer be trading as a racing team anymore.

Nevertheless, this should be a reminder to all who follow and love Formula One that no matter how much you want to compete, if you don't have the investment needed to sustain and stay in the sport year after year, then sometimes you just have to cut your losses and leave the sport even if you don't want to.

For the Caterham team, that is understandably the only option for them now and as a result, they will be missed on the grid and remembered by ultimately the fans who supported them no matter what during their time in Formula One and will always have a special place in their hearts for them too.