Indonesian ministry 'disappointed' by Manor decision

Indonesia's Sports Ministry has expressed its dismay over Manor Racing's decision to drop Rio Haryanto from their 2016 driving with immediate effect.

Haryanto had been unable to find the rest of the sponsorship money required to keep him in the race seat, and his place will be taken by French teenager Esteban Ocon from the Belgian Grand prix onwards.

"The Sports Ministry is disappointed with the decision," said ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto on Thursday.

"Manor's racing director Dave Ryan in February promised Rio Haryanto would race a full season in Formula One.

"Moreover, Manor's team director Abdulla Boulsien in June said Rio is part of the team's long term plan for at least two years."

However Broto conceded that Manor had already given Haryanto more time to come up with the outstanding money, believed to be around seven million euros, and that the team had even let Haryanto compete in the German Grand Prix despite the original tranche of sponsorship backing having run out.

"Manor asked Rio and his management to pay the remaining fees before the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 24 and it turned out that Manor gave another chance for Rio to race until German Grand Prix. Sports Ministry appreciates that."

Broto added that the Ministry itself had done what it could to help get the backing necessary to keep Haryanto in Formula One.

"We asked to use state budget to finance Rio, but it wasn't allowed by the lawmakers. The parliament fully supports Rio's involvement in F1 but using the state budget is not the option."

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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.