PURE will be forced to suspend its activity
Engaged in the development of a V6 Turbo to 2014 regulation specifications, Craig Pollock's company PURE will be forced to suspend its activities due to an inability to properly refinance. If the situation does not change by then, employees will be technically unemployed starting August 1st.
Craig Pollock definitely does not have luck in Formula 1. Fired from the management of his own BAR team in 2001, the Briton did not give up and sought to return to the top discipline as a supplier of the new power units introduced in 2014 by founding the company PURE, acronym for Propulsion Universelle et Récupération d’Énergie.
At the announcement of the creation of this company, many questions arose in the paddock, but the most recurring one was about the funds that would sustain this company to develop its engines before being able to supply them to Formula 1 teams. A question that resurfaces today, as PURE declares it is forced to suspend its activities due to insufficient means.
According to Craig Pollock, quoted by Autosport.com, the situation is very simple: The investor is based in the United States, but the Swiss tax authorities insist that the relay funding comes from the European Union. We expect this additional funding to be in place by the end of July and to come from the European Union.
In the meantime, Gilles Simon, technical director of PURE, sent an email to all those concerned by the news, here are some excerpts: « I would like to alert my colleagues in Cologne [PURE is headquartered in Switzerland but the technical team is based in the Toyota Motorsport facilities, ed.] that we are forced to suspend our activities as of August 1st. Indeed, the funds we expected from our investors are not available, and this will not allow us to start the project on the right foot. »
And the Frenchman continued: « We hope that this situation will be resolved quickly, but I have no idea when that might be possible or when we could get the project back on track. I apologize for this situation which is beyond our control. »
If this does not mark an endpoint for PURE, it is a clear halt. Especially since according to Craig Pollock, the project was technically well underway: « We had manufactured the parts and assembled the engines in Cologne, but all of this has stopped as of today. »
