Editing Simtek (section)

===1995===
MTV Europe's sponsorship commitment was reduced for the 1995 season, but they remained title sponsors to the team. Rather than money, MTV paid Simtek with airtime on their television channel. This airtime was then sold by Simtek to its other sponsors for them to show [[Television advertisement|commercials]].<ref>{{cite web |title=He Who Holds the Purse Strings |url=http://atlasf1.autosport.com/97/bra/rushworth.html |date=1997-04-02 |work=AtlasF1 |last=Rushworth |first=Paul |publisher=Haymarket Publishing}}</ref> Cosworth again supplied engines to the team, with the more up-to-date Ford ED. These were combined with former Benetton gearboxes and Wirth designed a new chassis, the [[Simtek S951|S951]].
[[File:Simtek S951 1995.PNG|thumb|The [[Simtek S951]] driven by [[Domenico Schiattarella]] in 1995.]]
David Brabham was made an offer by BMW to race in the British Touring Car Championship, and accepted. He was replaced by [[Jos Verstappen]], who was seeking more experience after an incident-filled season at Benetton in 1994.<ref>{{cite web |title=Verstappen signs for Simtek |date=1995-02-20 |url=http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00029.html |work=GrandPrix.com |publisher=Inside F1, Inc.}}</ref> The second seat was kept by Domenico Schiattarella for the first half of the season, while [[Hideki Noda]] paid a deposit to secure the place for the latter races.

Both cars retired from the opening round, but the second round in Argentina brought much promise. Verstappen qualified 14th for the race and moved up to sixth by the first pitstop. A slow pitstop dropped him down the order and then his gearbox failed the following lap. Schiattarella finished ninth, equaling the team's best finish the previous season. Verstappen's gearbox also failed at the next race in San Marino. Schiattarella retired with suspension failure. Spain brought 12th and 15th-placed finishes for the team, but there were bigger problems behind the scenes. In the 18 months the team had been in existence, they had amassed £6&nbsp;million worth of debt.<ref>{{cite web|title=Simtek Full Profile |url=http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/simtek/profile.html |date=2004-10-13 |publisher=Formula One Rejects |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025082922/http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/simtek/profile.html |archivedate=25 October 2007 }}</ref>

At Monaco, neither driver completed a lap of the race due to another gearbox failure on Verstappen's car, and the marshals failing to recover Schiattarella's car after the first aborted race start. Following the race Wirth wrote, in one of his regular [[Usenet]] newsgroup postings, that "a major new backer of the team, with whom I had signed a contract before the season, has finally pulled out and left a large hole in our finances".<ref>{{Cite newsgroup|author=Simtek News|title=Simtek: views on Monaco|date=1995-06-02|message-id=802108660snz@simtek.co.uk}}</ref> Wirth frantically tried to convince potential sponsors to come forward, threatening to shut down the team if none did so.<ref>{{cite web |title=Simtek in crisis |url=http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00150.html |date=1995-05-29 |publisher=Inside F1, Inc. |work=GrandPrix.com}}</ref> In the event a sponsor could be found, existing sponsors [[MTV]], [[Russell Athletic]] and [[Korean Air]] pledged to increase their own sponsorship commitments. The team did not appear at the Canadian Grand Prix, but were not fined by the sports commercial rights holders, FOM, for their absence. The CEO of FOM, [[Bernie Ecclestone]] agreed that the team entered the championship intending to compete in 16 races and as the championship was extended to 17, they were permitted to miss one race.

Negotiations with the potential backers and sponsors failed, and the companies that would pay for [[Hideki Noda]] to drive the Simtek were severely affected by the [[Great Hanshin earthquake|Kobe earthquake]]. Prior to the next race, Simtek Grand Prix went into voluntary liquidation and the receivers, [[Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu|Touche Ross]], were called in.<ref>{{cite web |title=Simtek goes to the wall |url=http://grandprix.com/ns/ns00175.html |date=1995-06-19 |publisher=Inside F1, Inc. |work=GrandPrix.com}}</ref> The collapse of the Formula One team also forced Simtek Research to declare itself bankrupt.<ref>{{cite web |title=Simtek up for sale |url=http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns00187.html |date=1995-06-26 |publisher=Inside F1, Inc. |work=GrandPrix.com}}</ref> In total, 48 jobs were lost and with the team unable to be sold as a going concern, Simtek's assets were auctioned off.