Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor pleased to silence doubters

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Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon says the team has been pleased to silence its doubters after completing the last two races with both cars.

Having missed the whole of pre-season testing as it exited administration, Manor failed to run at all during the Australian Grand Prix weekend and then ran just one car at a time in Malaysia, with Will Stevens failing to qualify or start the race. The latter incident saw the team’s approach questioned by some of its rivals, to which Lowdon hit back at the time.

Following that criticism, Manor has completed both the Chinese and Bahrain grands prix with both cars reaching the finish and Lowdon told F1i the team has responded to its doubters in the best possible way.

“The post-Malaysia comments were just nonsense,” Lowdon said. “[In Bahrain] there was another team (McLaren) which didn’t take the start with two cars and I didn’t hear anybody questioning anything about the team. Every team is here on merit and they’re all part of the championship.

“I think some of the comments that were made are just the sort of comments I don’t understand. Yes, we’ve had a big challenge. I think it’s testament to the team and all the people involved that there’s a huge amount of progress being made. Certainly from our point of view we’re just focused on our team and getting on with what we can do.

“I think it’s a bit odd when you read some of those things, but it is what it is.”

Click here for a look at the brake-by-wire system which caused Mercedes problems in Bahrain

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.