Manor

**Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited**, trading as **Manor Racing MRT** or **Pertamina Manor Racing MRT**, was a British Formula 1.5 racing team and constructor based in Banbury, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. The team originally started racing in 2010 under the "Virgin Racing" name; the following year Virgin adopted Marussia as a title sponsor becoming "Marussia Virgin Racing" until being fully rebranded as the "Marussia F1 Team" for 2012.

The team collapsed in November 2014 owing around £60m, two of the companies out of pocket being Marussia's former competitors McLaren and Ferrari. On 19 January 2015, the administrators of Marussia announced that the auction of its cars and assets had been cancelled so as to allow a possible buy out to take place. The team exited administration on 19 February 2015, and was re-established as the "Manor Marussia F1 Team" after a CVA had been signed and new investment was secured to rescue the team. It was later announced that OVO Energy Owner and CEO, Stephen Fitzpatrick had purchased the team. The team retained "Marussia" as its constructor name throughout the 2015 season, also adopting a British licence. On 19 January 2016, the team announced it would be renamed to "Manor Racing".

The team competed under the constructor name **MRT** which stands for Manor Racing Team.

On 6 January 2017, it was announced that Manor's parent company, Just Racing Services, had been placed into administration by administrators at FRP Advisory. On 27 January, Just Racing Services collapsed after failing to find a buyer. The team closed before the start of the 2017 season, in March 2017 as any attempt to sell the team to a new owner did not come to fruition. Their 2017 entry fee was returned at the end of 2017. The arrival of Haas F1 in 2016 has subsequently displaced Manor and the other 2010 teams as the sport's latest entry.

## History

### 2016

On 22 February 2016, Manor launched their new car at the first test. The team had undergone a complete re-branding under the ownership of Fitzpatrick, and had seen the team colours change to red, white and blue.

During the first race of the season in Australia, Rio Haryanto retired due to a drivetrain problem, while Pascal Wehrlein finished in twelth place. At the next race, in Bahrain, Wehrlein was one place away from reaching Q2 for the first time in his career.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Pascal Wehrlein finished 5th place, brining home the team's best result.

The team's reserve driver, Alexander Rossi, won the Indianapolis 500.

Before the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, Rio Haryanto was demoted to reserve driver due to "his failure to meet his contractual obligations", due to his sponsors being unable to fulfill their financial commitments. For the remaining nine races of the season, he was replaced by Esteban Ocon, who had made frequent appearances testing for both Renault and Mercedes and who was considered to be a promising young talent.

Before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix reports circulated and were confirmed by Stephen Fitzpatrick, that the team were in advanced talks with a new investor. However, in early January 2017 the team's parent company was put under administration after the investment talks failed, putting their participation in the 2017 season into doubt. Although they paid their 2017 entry fee, since their participation did not materialise, the entry fee was returned by the FIA at the end of 2017.