Manor must foot Australian bill

Manor Marussia will be forced to dig deep into their pockets after they failed to compete at the Australian GP, Bernie Ecclestone has warned.

After months of "will they or won't they" compete questions, the Banbury-based squad revealed in February that they have received financial investment and will take part in the 2015 F1 season.

They named Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi as their two drivers and made the trip Down Under to Melbourne. However, both drivers failed to take part in any of the sessions over the weekend.

The team's bosses were ordered to do some explaining to the race stewards over their no-show, but they escaped any punishment.

However, F1 supremo Ecclestone says the team had "no intention" of taking part and they will have to foot the bill for freight costs.

"We should have never ever, ever allowed Manor to do what they’ve done. It’s our fault. I predicted this would happen," he told Reuters.

"They had no intention of racing in Australia. Zero. They couldn’t have raced if someone had gone there with a machine gun and put it to their head.

He added: "It was impossible. So they had no intention. We’ll have to see now. And they will have to pay their way to get there and get out of there."