Manor 'making progress' with possible investors

Manor Racing says that it is making progress in its desperate search to find new investors to help it out of its latest financial crisis.

The company that operates the race team was placed in the hands of administrators on January 6. Staff at Manor's base in Banbury, Oxfordshire have been told their jobs are safe until the end of this month, but some staff are reported to have already jumped ship and signed deals with rival teams Renault and Toro Rosso.

On Friday, workers were told that the administrators FRP Advisory had made progress in talks with possible investors, which could lead to the team's survival.

BBC Sport reports that "prospects have improved considerably over the last few days."

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Manor is understood to urgently need more than £500,000 if it is to be able to compete in this year's Formula One championship. Pre-season testing starts at the end of February, and Manor is believed to have been given permission by the FIA to initially race a modified version of its 2016 chassis despite rule changes that mean this year's new cars could be three to five seconds per lap faster.

Mid-week reports suggested that there had already been one firm offer to buy out not just the beleaguered Just Racing Services Ltd but also the other two Manor companies Just Racing Ltd and Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd that hold the F1 and FOM licences.

McLaren Group CEO and chairman Ron Dennis is among those who have been linked to a possible takeover, as well as American entrepreneur Tavo Hellmund and an Asian consortium led by former sporting director Graeme Lowdon and Indonesian businessman Ricardo Gelael, whose companies sponsored his son Sean and the Campos team in GP2 last year.

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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.