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Ryan returns to F1 with 'a completely clear conscience'

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New Manor racing director Dave Ryan returns to F1 with "a completely clear conscience".

Ryan was sporting director at McLaren having been part of the team for more than three decades, but was sacked amid controversy in 2009 after McLaren was found to have lied to FIA stewards regarding instructions given to Lewis Hamilton during that year's Australian Grand Prix. Ryan went on to form his own racing team and had not worked in F1 until his appointment by Manor late last year.

When asked if he had any reservations coming back to the sport, Ryan replied: “What happened, happened.

“It was a long time ago. I’ve a completely clear conscience about what happened, and that didn’t enter my mind for a second because there wasn’t anything to think about on that side of things.”

Having received a number of positive messages from former McLaren colleagues upon his return, Ryan says it was the vast difference to his previous team which attracted him to Manor.

“Bob Bell contacted me actually. I know Bob quite a lot over a number of years, worked with him at McLaren, and he just gave me a call one day and asked me if I’d like to come and have a chat.

“To be honest I was pretty busy doing my own stuff. I wasn’t at all sure about it, but he called me again, got talking to him, and then I met [team owner] Stephen [Fitzpatrick]. To be honest I kind of liked what I saw. Compared to what I had before, or where I came from, it’s like two extremes.

“At first it was like a big breath, but the more you think about it, the more you get involved with it, and you think it could be quite fun, a really great story.

"All the ingredients are there, but now we have to step up to the mark as a team, and if we can do a good job then we can put in a respectable performance. But it’s tough because every single team out there is trying to do the same thing.

“It’s hard, we don’t underestimate what it’s going to take, but we’re quite excited about the challenge.”

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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.