It was not the smoothest of weekends for the Manor team, although the change in momentum we saw at the Monaco and Canadian rounds of the championship seemed to translate onto the Austrian Grand Prix too. With former GP2 champion Fabio Leimer on the verge of making his first appearance for the team if a sponsorship package comes through, there will certainly be pressure on the two drivers to perform. A high rate of attrition during the race saw the one Manor driver who finished achieve his best result to date in Formula 1.
Rumours are circulating around whether we will see Manor’s 2015 car at all this season, and there are also rumours that the team will become a Honda b-team for 2016. Whilst the latter seems very unlikely, the former would not surprise me. It does not make much sense to bring a car which would cost a lot of money for just a handful of races. It looks as if we are stuck with the revised 2014 car for the remainder of the season.
2015 Austrian Grand Prix Manor Review
No. 28 Will Stevens
Grid: P17 (Qualified P20)
Race: Retired (Lap 1, oil leak)
Austria produced what was certainly a weekend to forget for the Briton. He looked outpaced by his team mate all weekend, and a spin in practice did not help. He claimed that he was impeded on his final qualifying run but was still set to be beaten by his team mate anyway. His race was over before it had begun due to an oil leak.
No. 98 Roberto Merhi
Grid: P16 (Qualified P19)
Race: P14
Meanwhile, the driver on form Roberto Merhi backed up his better form with a strong qualifying and a strong race. He was just over a second behind the works Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen in qualifying which was running the 2015 power unit and he finished only three laps behind the leaders in the race, which is not bad considering the very short lap. The Spaniard seemed pretty strong at the circuit all weekend, and his experiences in the past will have helped. He will be looking to continue this form onto Silverstone.
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