News that many had feared over the month of January was confirmed on Friday morning. Manor Racing will no longer compete in Formula One, shutting down for good.
The high costs of Formula One racing have knocked out yet another competitor. Administrators of Just Racing Ltd., which operates the Manor Racing team, confirmed on Friday that the team would shut down and not race in 2017 or beyond. The team was seeking a new owner in hopes of yet another 11th-hour savior, but no deal materialized.
Concerns were building over the end of the 2016 season around the funding of the Manor Racing team. Owner Stephen Fitzpatrick confirmed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that the team was in talks with investors, but none of those efforts came to pass. The shutdown of the team effectively ends F1’s 2010 expansion, with all three teams that entered that year now no longer in competition.
Manor Racing began competition as Virgin Racing when Sir Richard Branson purchased the naming rights to the upstart team. They finished last in the constructors standings in their first year, but still attracted big names like Marussia as partners. The team would be renamed Marussia Virgin Racing for 2011, before adopting the Marussia name simply in 2012.
The high water mark for the organization came in the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix, when Jules Bianchi finished 9th to score the team’s first points. Sadly, the season took a dramatic turn for the worst when Bianchi crashed in the Japanese Grand Prix, never recovering from his injuries.
Following Bianchi’s crash, the team seemingly never recovered. The team entered administration in late 2015, only to be saved at the last moment by Stephen Fitzpatrick. They would race in 2016 with a year-old chassis and year-old Mercedes engines, and impressed their competition in the process. Pascal Wehrlein would score points for only the second time in team history in Austria, but they would still finish last in the constructors standings.
So what spelled the ultimate demise for the Manor Racing team? Combine poor performances when compared to other constructors and the lack of a promised F1 budget cap, and small teams like this have struggled to last. The similar fates of Hispania Racing and Caterham speak to the issues surrounding the large funding gap between the back and the front of the Formula One grid. Fortunately, Liberty Media is definitely interested in the budget cap idea, though it is too late to save Manor from its fate.
With the closure of the Manor Racing team, just ten teams and twenty cars will make the grid for the 2017 F1 season. New owners Liberty Media also inherit a new problem to try and find a solution for–drawing in new team owners for the world championship.
Were you a fan of the Manor Racing team? Will you miss seeing the team on the grid? Share your favorite memories of the team in our comments section below.
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