We were disappointed to report earlier this month that the parent company of the Manor Racing team had entered bankruptcy protection and was on the verge of collapse. There was some hope at the time that the bankruptcy administrators would still find new investors to take over the team, but those hopes have now been dashed. And with it comes the end to the expansion of the Formula One grid.

“Since their appointment earlier this month the joint administrators at FRP Advisory have continued to work, with the support of senior management, to try and secure new investment into the business resulting in negotiations with a number of interested parties,” read the bankruptcy administrators’ statement cited by Motorsport.com. “Regrettably since the appointment of administrators no investment has been secured in the limited time available to continue the Group in its present form.”

That means all but a few of the employees at Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd. (and its parent company Just Racing Services) are being terminated with immediate effect. And though another party could still ostensibly acquire the team’s license and resources, and launch a new team in its place, the Manor team as we know it is officially dead, and won’t be making it onto the grid for the start of the season in Melbourne at the end of March.

It’s a disappointing end not only for Manor, but for the notion altogether of bringing new teams into Formula One.

The team, as you may recall, traces its roots back to 2009 when the FIA opened up the application process to add new teams to the grid. Though four slots were made available, only three teams were selected: Manor (which hit the track in 2010 under the name Virgin Racing), Caterham (which originally ran under the name Lotus), and the Hispania Racing Team (HRT). HRT collapsed after the 2012 season, and the Lotus/Caterham team eventually folded at the end of 2014. Manor held on, changing names and backers from Virgin to Marussia only to run under the original Manor name. But without sufficient funding, the team has now officially collapsed, spelling the end of the FIA’s expansion effort.

In the time since, Haas has emerged as the only new team to join the field (having acquired some assets from Manor’s predecessor Marussia). Several teams have changed name and ownership along the way, though, with Mercedes taking over the Brawn/Honda outfit, BMW withdrawing to return the Sauber team to private hands, McLaren bringing Honda back into the fold, and Renault re-acquiring the (other) Lotus team from Genii Capital. But as for the expansion experiment, that has now officially died along with Manor.

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