Manor Racing wins extra week's reprieve

Manor Racing has been given an extra week to help it try and sort out a rescue deal to save it from administration.

Just Racing Services Ltd, the company that operates the race team, was placed in the hands of administrators on January 6. Reports earlier this week suggested that the team only had until January 20 to find a new investor to bring money into the business before it risked being wound up.

But BBC News reports that the administrators FRP Advisory have made a decision to keep all staff employed until at least the end of the month.

'Only one week left' to save Manor

"They felt there was sufficient funding to pay the cost base to the end of the month," a spokesman for FRP said.

Around 100 employees are still working at Manor's base in Banbury, Oxfordshire, preparing a car for the 2017 season. However the administrators won't authorise expenditure to start manufacturing components for the new car.

Manor have been granted permission by Formula 1's governing body the FIA to use their 2016 chassis, with minor modifications but no requirement for further crash tests, as the basis for the car to be raced at the beginning of the season which starts in Australia on March 26.

FRP is believed to be in talks with a number of potential investors and conducting due diligence of the offers being made.

Manor has been close to new ownership on two occasions since the end of last season, once with a bid from American entrepreneur Tavo Hellmund and another to an Asian consortium.

Manor is currently owned by Stephen Fitzpatrick, who runs independent British energy supplier Ovo. He took over the team then known as Marussia in 2015 when it had also gone into administration.

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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.