Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor should be convinced of my potential - Rossi

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Alexander Rossi says his performances for Manor in F1 this season should give him the momentum to secure a race seat next year.

The American took part in five races this season - in Singapore, Japan, the USA, Mexico and Brazil - having signed a deal to drive when he wasn’t competing in GP2. Last weekend’s race in Brazil marked the first time Rossi failed to beat team-mate Will Stevens in a race, and he told F1i the results are encouraging in terms of earning himself a full-time drive next year.

“Looking back on the five it’s all been very positive,” Rossi said. “We've done the best job that we can in a lot of very interesting circumstances in terms of weather and different challenges and stuff. So I think to come out on top in terms of the qualifying battle and the race battle is quite good and hopefully we can take the momentum in to something for next year.”

Directly asked if he feels he has done enough to convince Manor it should put him in a race seat for 2016, Rossi replied: “I think so, yeah!

“It’s always difficult to be thrown in kind of half way or three quarters of the way through the year but we’ve had the better of the other car pretty much every weekend so I think that’s quite a good sign and the relationship is positive so hopefully we can put something together.”

Rossi also reiterated how much more interest there has been in sponsoring him as a result of his promotion to a race seat for the five races this season.

“100%. Being in a race seat versus selling the potential of being in a race seat changes your perception massively. As it has been quite successful and the results in GP2 have been quite strong as well I think that everything is pointing in the right direction.

“People are quite excited and amped about me getting to Formula One. That’s something that I haven’t had as much of in the past so I think going in to this winter it is the best chance that I have ever had of getting a race seat.”

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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.