Backmarkers Marussia and Caterham are set to miss next week's US Grand Prix in Austin due to financial issues. The news was broken by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday morning.

Caterham entered administration earlier this week and are desperately trying to attract new owners. Administrator Finbarr O'Connell is now in charge of finding someone to rescue the team. 'This is a very cash strapped team' O'Connell said on Feiday, 'my immediate position is to further the negotiations...in order that somebody with proper financial backing can hopefully take over the team.'

The team's factory was closed this week and the future isn't looking good for the Leafield outift, with only three races remaining. They will also miss the Brazilian Grand Prix as the races are back to back, and would require the cars going straight to Brazil from the USA.

Marussia only raced one car last time out in Sochi as a mark of respect to their driver Jules Bianchi, who of course suffered a terrible accident at Suzuka, and remains in a critical but stable condition. The Russian team are said to be struggling financially and despite looking likely for ninth in the Constructors standings, their best ever finish, things do not look good for the two backmarkers.

The person who'll be most disappointed by their absence is Marussia test driver Alex Rossi, who was set to have an appearance of some sort at his home Grand Prix. He would have been likely to make an FP1 appearance and perhaps even race the second car in Austin, if Marussia had decided to race two cars.

With both teams missing, there will be only 18 cars on the grid in Austin and Brazil, which is likely to fuel speculation that there are to be eight teams of three cars for 2015. The plans have been spoken about but have been widely denied by many. But with a supposed regulation in place, the plans could be likely. 'We have a regulation in place that says if we lose three teams the other teams will run three cars', Ecclestone said.

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Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.