Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor preparing for emotional Monaco weekend

Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon admits the team is in for a very emotional weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix, the scene of Jules Bianchi's ninth place last year.

Bianchi scored the first points for the team - then known as Marussia - in Monte Carlo, a result which was celebrated wildly and eventually saw the team finish ninth in the constructors' championship ahead of Sauber and Caterham. Speaking exclusively to F1i, Lowdon says remembering Bianchi's success will make for a difficult weekend for the team.

“Yes, I think there will be quite a lot of emotion actually because it’s obviously the scene of some very, very happy times,” Lowdon said. “It was pretty much Jules’ home race really, last year, and we’ve all got some fantastic memories.

“It was a great team effort that result as well, it pretty much began [in Barcelona] at the test where we felt we got the car going a lot better and we were really troubling a couple of teams in front. I remember we were quite frustrated after FP1 and FP2 that we hadn’t got more data and we hadn’t made more progress. That was really a sign of how the team had progressed at that stage.

“We had a proper roller coaster weekend with penalties, gearbox changes, overtaking manoeuvres, safety cars, it had everything. It was a real roller coaster but I remember Jules crossing the line and it was a great feeling for everyone in the team. I’m sure everyone will have some thoughts when they’re there because we had such good memories.

“Bizarrely enough I think it’s more difficult to go there than Suzuka because we have such good memories.”

Click here for Wednesday's gallery from testing at the Circuit de Catalunya

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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.