Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Merhi gets second Manor seat

Manor has announced Roberto Merhi will drive for the team at the start of the 2015 season alongside Will Stevens.

Merhi takes the final position available on this year's grid after Manor - formerly Marussia - exited administration ahead of this weekend's opening race in Melbourne. Both of the race drivers were involved with Caterham last season, with Stevens racing in Abu Dhabi and Merhi taking part in a number of FP1 sessions alongside his Formula Renault 3.5 commitments. In announcing the deal, Manor says Merhi will drive "in the opening rounds" of the season.

“I am incredibly excited to be making my Formula 1 debut with Manor Marussia F1 Team in Melbourne this weekend," Merhi said. "It is a big responsibility but I feel ready to make this step in my career and to show that I can make an important contribution to developing a team.”

Manor has also announced British youngster Jordan King as the team's development driver. King's father - Justin - was named as interim chairman of the team last week with the former Sainsbury's CEO involved in the rescue package which has allowed Manor to return to the grid.

“I am obviously over the moon to be joining Manor Marussia F1 Team as a development driver," King said. "This is such an exciting project, full of great people and with a real chance of success. This is another great step closer to my ultimate goal of racing in Formula 1.”

Manor will use a modified 2014 car which conforms to this year's regulations, while it will also use last season's Ferrari power unit.

Click here for the latest technical upgrades before Melbourne in pictures

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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.