Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsManor

Manor summoned to FIA for qualifying absence

Manor has been summoned to see the FIA after missing qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

The team failed to run at all during any of the three practice sessions and proceeded to miss qualifying as the cars were not ready. Having not taken to the track during qualifying, Manor has been called to the FIA to explain its absence.

"The Stewards request that you provide a written statement explaining why the team did not participate in Qualifying for the 2015 Australian Grand Prix after receiving a letter from the FIA on the 20th February," a message from the Stewards to Manor read.

While the contents of the FIA letter are currently unknown, team principal John Booth admits Manor knew it was unlikely to be able to run at all on Saturday early in the morning.

"I think we pretty much knew by 4 o'clock this morning that we were not going to make it," Booth said.

Asked if an extra day would have been enough for Manor to run, Booth replied: "Yep.

"We'll get to Malaysia on the Monday, start the set-up on the Tuesday and for sure be ready to run on the Friday."

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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.