Force India’s deputy team principal, Bob Fernley, the man who blocked Marussia’s return to Formula One, says he does not feel sorry for the team following their “totally inadequate” application to race in 2015.

And he added that Marussia “remind me of an opportunist just trying to see what they can do to get their money.”

Marussia’s bid to compete this season using a 2014 car and with the new name Manor Grand Prix required the unanimous support of the other teams and the FIA commission. But at Thursday’s meeting of F1’s strategy group Force India said no to Marussia’s “speculative bid”.

Marussia’s £26.2m prize money for coming ninth last season will now be divided among the other teams, each picking up an average of just over £3m, and Fernley did not deny that money was an issue for his own cash-strapped outfit based at Silverstone.

He said: “Is money involved in it? Yes of course it is. And you would be stupid in Formula One not to think that. But that’s not the real issue.

“At the last F1 Commission meeting it was made very clear to [the Marussia president] Graeme Lowdon what was required to help get Marussia back on the grid, for us to make a concession for them.

“But that involved them coming back to the FIA and to Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder, with a very clear plan, explaining who owns the team, or will own the team, where the funding is coming from, who would be driving it forward, who would be managing it, how is it going to work? A significant application, in other words. But there was nothing.

“All we got was a one paragraph page which didn’t even tell us who the owners were. With all due respect that’s not good enough. It was very poorly done.”

Fernley, who is confident of taking part this season despite missing the first testing session in Jerez this week, added: “First of all, it was sent by Graeme, who is not even authorised to do it. It should have come from the administrator. So it wasn’t even compliant. But we could have got round that. But it was just a straightforward letter: ‘Can Marussia run the 2014 car in 2015?’ That was it. There was nothing else to support it.”

The irony is that in recent years Fernley has operated as the unofficial shop steward for the smaller teams struggling at the back of the grid. He said: “Over the past few months we have been at the forefront of trying to help and save everybody. If there was the slightest hope here we would have tried to help. But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. For all I know Marussia could just have a speculative plan to throw a car on the grid and draw money out of it.

“It’s not our responsibility to present Marussia’s case. It’s Marussia’s responsibility to convince the teams this was the right thing to do. But it was never discussed because it was so badly presented and we saw there was no substantive information behind it. Bernie [Ecclestone] has worked hard on it, I know he has, but even he couldn’t make it work.

“Given the lack of information, uncertain guarantees, and the speculative nature of the application, the decision was taken that it is better to focus on ensuring the continued participation of the remaining independent teams.”

Speculation over Force India’s future mounted once it became clear that they were not attending the first testing session.

But Fernley said: “I’m pretty confident we’ll make it to Barcelona for the final testing session at the end of the month, and we’ll definitely get to Melbourne. We’re behind schedule but we’ll make it.

“We had major issues in trying to get the wind tunnel programme finished off. And there have been issues with suppliers, who have been badly hurt by the Marussia and Caterham problems. They need payments, and I have no issue with that, but it creates a cash-flow problem.”

As for Marussia, they have battled so hard in recent months that they are unlikely to take this as the end. They are likely to confront Fernley and the rest of the teams about exactly what went on in Paris.

Marussia went into administration in November and missed the last three races of the season. They still have debts of about £30m – but now can’t claim the prize money that would have helped to pay them off.