Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon admits it is difficult for the team to race as hard as possible when it is so far off the pace.
While Manor - under its former names of Marussia and Virgin - has always been one of the smallest teams at the back of the grid, previous seasons have seen it face competition from the likes of Caterham and previously HRT. All three entered F1 in 2010 but Manor is the only team which has survived after exiting administration ahead of the start of this season.
With Manor often up to two seconds off the midfield and racing alone at the back in 2015, Lowdon told F1i it has been tough going but says the team is motivated by progress elsewhere as it seeks to be competitive next season.
“We just have to keep building the team,” Lowdon said. “There’s still more people joining, the wind tunnel program is looking really good, it’s heading in the right direction. We’re going to be moving in to some new premises … there’s a lot to look forward to. In particular seeing the staff numbers go up and up and up; the downside is it’s more difficult to park your car in the car park! But the upside is the machine that is a Formula One team is running smoother and smoother with people involved.
“Obviously we don’t have speed in the car at the moment but that will be addressed with the next car and we have to make sure we’re ready to race it as hard as we possible can. In the meantime it is difficult when you know you have that pace disadvantage but you can’t ever give up. We knew we were going to have to face this, it’s not unusual, it’s not as if we were expecting anything different, but it is hard to go racing when it’s like that.
“But I’m sure we’ll look back at this phase in years to come and see it as a period when we had to draw breath and regroup and rebuild a team that came so close to not making it back on to the grid. It’s the price we pay to make sure we are back and racing long term.”
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