The return of Manor GP (formerly Marussia) has been a welcome news topic for many F1 fans and it seems that other teams share the happiness that the little team that could has been afforded a slot on the FIA’s entry list for 2015. While Pat Symonds of Williams F1 is excited for Manor and likens it to the small teams of the past that have gone on to bigger yields, the thought does circle back to the one dissenting voice among the F1 pundits, Force India.
In an article at Reuters, Force India boss, Bob Fernley, says sure, good luck to them but he does defend the his team’s strong opposition to Manor’s request a few weeks ago in a F1 Strategy group vote that went against the small team:
“It was entirely safety related. Why would we allow a technically unsafe chassis to race when everybody else has made them safe?” he told Reuters.
“It wasn’t that we were against the concession, it was against the fact that it was carte blanche. What were we going to do, allow the 2014 car in for the whole year? In which case why have we gone and made 2015 cars?
“All we can do is wish success. If they can do that (satisfy the 2015 regulations), that’s what they should have done in the first place.”
Manor is back and Force India wishes them well. I reckon that’s about all you could ask for from a small team who is also rumored to be running very limited budgets and struggling to survive in a sport that saw Manor’s back-of-the-rid peers, Caterham, auction off its assets last week.
Very little has been said of Manor’s new investors and what the team plan for the 2015 season. Will it remain Manor GP or will it reinvent itself? Are the cars brand new chassis’s or are they merely 2014 cars renovated to pass 2015 specifications?
It is believed that Ferrari have agreed to supply engines but those are said to be 2014 spec power units and one has to believe that Manor is set for a very expensive run at the back of the field all year long. Let’s hope the new investors amount to more than just two men speaking quietly in the men’s bathroom at a train station in Minsk.
Don’t let Force India get you down, Williams F1 boffin, Pat Symonds, said:
“I am so pleased… I think it’s great to see them back,” Symonds said.
“(Team principal) John (Booth) and (sporting director) Graeme (Lowdon) are two great guys, real racers. I started 35 years ago at Toleman and Toleman was not as professional as Marussia,” he added.
“But the seed of that team produced Benetton and Renault and now Lotus. (Designer) Rory Byrne, all his wins, my career. There is such a place for teams like that, they are so important to the sport.”
Pat’s been around a while and he’s generally a positive guy so lets echo his sentiment and be happy for Manor, there are some great folks at that team.
Hat Tip: Reuters
