Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor has ‘very obvious potential’ still to be exploited

Manor racing director Dave Ryan insists the team will be able to improve further on its Bahrain Grand Prix showing as it has yet to exploit “some very obvious potential”.

The opening race of the season saw Manor clearly off the pace of the midfield with both drivers dropping out at the start of Q1. However, Bahrain saw a major step forward as Pascal Wehrlein was the last driver eliminated in the first part of qualifying and duly beat the two Force Indias and Felipe Nasr’s Sauber - as well as his own team-mate Rio Haryanto - to the chequered flag.

Having seen Manor race competitively in the midfield, Ryan says there is plenty more progress to be made and the performance in Bahrain simply confirms that belief.

“Both drivers performed impeccably, keeping us on the edge of our seats from start to finish and demonstrating real maturity for two young rookies,” Ryan said. “Obviously Pascal had a dream race for where we are right now and did an incredible job getting past both Force Indias.

“I am however going to temper our excitement because with the package we have we’re still only on the first rung on a fairly tall ladder. There’s some way to go and some very obvious potential that we have yet to tap into.

“Having said that, it’s rewarding to see the hard work starting to pay off and the team beginning to grow in stature. We’re a much stronger unit operationally and in particular I’d like to acknowledge the contribution of our support team back at base in Banbury, who have been with us every step of the weekend. On to China now where I hope we will see further signs of our continued improvement.”

Scene at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Bahrain Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend

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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.