Manor Racing's Rio Haryanto has initiated an original support campaign in Indonesia involving a scheme where fans can fund the young hopeful's season through text messages.
In a nutshell, several telecommunication companies in Indonesia have encouraged users to text the word 'Rio' to a specific number, with a small cost going directly towards funding of Haryanto's F1 efforts with Manor.
The campaign promoters are apparently targeting 12.4 million text messages by mid-July. It's worth reminding that Indonesia's population amounts to 250 milliom people, so the target seems reasonable.
While the scheme is interesting, the more important take-away is perhaps the fact that Haryanto's seat with Manor may only be secure up to mid-July, or to the British Grand Prix.
Should he fail to bring in the required funding, his F1 seat could be in jeopardy.
The 23-year-old Indonesian is on a steep learning curve this season with Manor. The British outfit has upped its performance level thanks to its Mercedes power unit, but Haryanto still appears to be at a lengthy distance in terms of speed from his talented team mate, and Mercedes protégé, Pascal Wehrlein.
REPORT: Rosberg cruises home ahead of chaos in China
Chinese Grand Prix lap-by-lap as it happened
Eric Silbermann has breakfast with photographer Crispin Thruston
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…
Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…
Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…
While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…
Dan Gurney passed away on this day in 2018, and here at F1i we'll never…
What began as a painful reminder of loss has ended with a moment of profound…