Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor encouraged by progress with updates

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Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon says he has been “really pleased” with the progress shown by its first updates of 2015.

Having missed the whole of pre-season while it worked on exiting administration, Manor has been running with an adapted 2014 car so far this year. Silverstone saw the team introduce its first updates to the MR03B, with a tweaked front wing, revised sidepods, rear bodywork and a complete new floor among the relatively substantial upgrade. Lowdon told F1i the new parts worked well and have given the team encouragement for the rest of the year.

“Really pleased, they did pretty much what they did on the tin and that’s really what you want to see,” Lowdon said. “It suggests that not only was there a clear improvement but a predictable improvement as well. The guys seem pretty happy with it.”

With both cars running 12th and 13th for a long spell towards the end of the British Grand Prix due to retirements, Lowdon says it was worth Manor gambling to see if it could score a point.

“We were just trying to make sure that if there was an opportunity to do something different that could move the guys ahead then we were in a position to try it. So we switched to inters early because there was absolutely nothing to be gained in switching when everyone else was going to switch.

“So it was worth trying and certainly at one point there were a few cars out there on slicks when the conditions looked quite tricky - I think a few of them went off - so it was a strategy worth following.”

Click here for a lighter look back at some scenes from the British Grand Prix

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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.