So... Manor have now officially ditched the Marussia name. After all they havnt been Marussia for a long while.......But are they actually Manor?
The engine price drop has been announced, with the current PU's to be kept until 2020. Plaudits to Bernie, he played it well, they said no, he altered tack and started talking about the spectacle and it would be better to go back to V8's, now he has what he and the smaller teams asked for, though they won't see the benefit for a couple of years, they'll at least get 3 seasons of almost half-price engines.
Nearly all the cars were running 2016 parts for evaluation in the last 2 or 3 races, another clever way to get things through the rules when it comes to running "last years cars" in the few tests they do get.
Fry joins Manor as engineering consultant The Manor Racing team has secured another boost to its 2016 preparations with the signing of former McLaren and Ferrari engineering chief Pat Fry. Although the Banbury-based outfit has yet to announce either of its drivers for the season ahead, the team has been signing up leading technical staff to bolster its efforts. And just a week after announcing the recruitment of former Ferrari designer Nicholas Tombazis, it has reached agreement with his former colleague Pat Fry to be an engineering consultant. Manor racing director Dave Ryan said: "We are extremely fortunate to have Pat on board to help us hit the ground running with our exciting new technical package. "The aim is to bring performance to the car with effect from the Barcelona tests, then translate that to the race track in Melbourne, to ensure we make the strongest possible start to 2016 and have a good basis for development in the early part of the season." Fry has been out of F1 since leaving Ferrari at the end of 2014, but has a wealth of F1 experience, having also worked at McLaren and Benetton.
With Torro Rosso using 2015 spec engines and Sauber looking like they are in trouble with finances, Manor-Mercedes should get some regular points this year.
It would be nice for Manor to progress after all the issues they have survived. Always good to see underdogs get a few points.
Autosport seem convinced that Magnussen will get the Lotus drive. Saying that an agreement between Renault and PDVSA is very unlikely now. Great News if true. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122625
As much as people hate him, he's still better than Palmer, so they've made the mistake in getting rid of someone with potential over someone who's just going to be plain ****.
Are these new "consultants" for Manor actually going to be fully fledged members of the team, or answer a couple of questions on the phone from their garden shed? If its proper technical involvement, then 2017 will probably see a bigger improvement than this year.
they can't lose, everyone expects it to be crap no matter what, even with the Merc PU, so if it steals a few points it'll be hailed as miraculous and they'll get kudo's.
t After 96 races, can you still talk of Maldonado having potential? Palmer might not be the quickest, but I'm expecting him to be dependable at least for solid finishes, which might be more valuable to Lotus/Renault
I don't want to judge Palmer prior to him racing at this level, but he represents what is fundamentally wrong with the path to F1.
Maldonado has always been very hit and miss, he can spring a strong result but he's also quiet adept at being erratic. Time will tell how Palmer performs but you get the impression he'll be more consistent. If Renault want to develop something then having a guy who is consistent is probably more important. Both Palmer and Maldonado took 4 years to win a GP2 crown so the more things change the more they stay the same. I've not seen much in Palmer to be excited about his prospects, but at the same time nothing is jumping out as a giant no no. I hope he performs, another strong driver in F1 is a good thing, I'll certainly give him his chance anyway