Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor showing desire to move forward - Stevens

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Will Stevens says Manor has shown it wants to move further up the grid in 2016 after recovering from administration.

Manor went in to administration at the end of 2014 and missed the final three races of the season, with its assets even being auctions off before Stephen Fitzpatrick helped save the team. After spending the past year running at the back of a ten team field on its own, Manor will switch to Mercedes power and a Williams rear end for next season.

Stevens - who still hopes to remain with Manor for 2016 - says the recent deals agreed by the team show its commitment to becoming competitive which he was aware of when he first joined.

“It’s not a case of waiting it out [for a new deal] or anything,” Stevens told F1i. “We know what we want and I’m sure the team know what they want. At the moment we’re working together to find the best solution for both and I’m happy with the direction we’re going in. As I said at the start of this year, everyone question why I signed with the team but I knew straight away the vision the team had was really exciting and I knew the performance throughout the next few years will keep improving.

“I think the team has proved with the things they have sorted out at the end of this year with the Mercedes power unit that the intentions really are there to push forward and have a competitive car.

“We don’t want to be at the back of the field, everyone wants to achieve good things and I think the things the team have done put us in a position to do that. I really want to be here and everything is heading in that direction to be here for next year.”

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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.