After seven seasons in the sport, multiple ownership changes, two points finishes and 12 different drivers, Manor Racing’s time in Formula 1 has come to an end.
Since they joined the grid in 2010, the British outfit have struggled to break away from the back of the grid, and it took them 83 races to score points and that was purely down to the heroic efforts of the late Jules Bianchi and a crazy Monaco Grand Prix, rather than the ultimate pace of the car.
From a lack of budget to spiralling costs and underperforming drivers, there is a multitude of factors that contributed to the demise of this fan favourite team, we assess those key factors and aim to make a conclusion as to why this small team from Oxfordshire failed to succeed at motorsport’s highest level.
Their F1 journey began on rocky foundations and false promises; the proposed budget cap was a large factor in why they, along with Hispania Racing and Lotus Racing, decided to enter the sport though it never came to fruition.
Had this proposed optional budget cap of £40 million gone ahead, Virgin might have had a fighting chance, however, it didn’t and they soon learned money would always be their biggest obstacle. The sport did try and help the new teams with free transportation of two chassis and 10,000 kg of freight to each race as well as £6.25m in order to help them find their feet.
Despite the sport’s aid, Virgin Racing’s lack of budget showed with extremely poor reliability and a fuel tank not even big enough to finish a race without extreme fuel conservation. Virgin managed just four double finishes in its debut season compared to nine double finishes for Hispania and seven for Lotus.
They finished the year in 12th and last in the Constructors’ Championship. Considering they reportedly had a larger budget than Hispania and arguably a much stronger driver pairing in the experienced Timo Glock and extremely promising youngster Lucas Di Grassi, they really should have done better.
Moments such as Di Grassi crashing on the way to the grid in Japan, a race where rival Heikki Kovalainen scored his best finish of the year and earned Lotus 10th in the championship, really cost the team and they seemed to lack the efficiency and luck of their rivals.
2011 witnessed Russian car manufacturer Marussia acquire the team and Jerome D’Ambrosio earn a promotion from test to race driver, replacing Lucas Di Grassi. The new owners and the new driver failed to bring a change to their results and they were still a couple of seconds from the midfield in qualifying. Despite significantly improving their reliability, they slumped to a second consecutive 12th in the Constructors’ Championship.
Midway through their second season, they announced they had split from their chief designer, Nick Wirth, who controversially used the strategy of only designing a car using CFD, with no time spent in the wind tunnel. He also opted against running KERS when it was announced it would be used in 2011. While this reduced costs, it clearly didn’t pay off and was a large reason why Virgin was so far off the pace in their first two seasons.
Their 2012 car, the MR01, immediately hit trouble and missed the majority of pre-season testing. It was this now typical pre-season instability that meant Marussia could never really hit the ground running and were on the backfoot from the very first test in nearly every season they competed in.
After three years of frustration and arguably mediocre performances, Glock finally produced the big result the team needed as they finally beat their previous best of a 14th place finish, with a 12th place finish in Singapore. It catapulted them into 10th in the championship,
It was to be short-lived, however, as Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov overtook Marussia’s newest driver Charles Pic for 11th place in a hectic Brazilain Grand Prix, demoting Marussia to 11th in the championship and breaking the heart of the small team that had fought so hard all season and enjoyed their best year yet.
2013 witnessed Pat Symonds take up the role of a consultant and immediately their fortunes began to change, with a new design philosophy and the implementation of KERS for the first time. It also marked the first season in which the team had a car ready in time for the first winter test.
Throughout the year they were consistently quicker than their closest rivals Caterham and benefited from Ferrari junior Jules Bianchi and GP2 race winner Max Chilton, who finished every single race that year.
This change of driver line up and technical staff and consequential improvement in performance highlights the early staffing issues the team had. 13th place in Malaysia was enough to secure Marussia a first 10th in the standings despite having a budget £15m less than Caterham.
They were closer than ever before to points and they seemed to be more financially stable, as they retained their driver line-up for the first time in their history. However, the introduction of the hybrid engines in 2014 and subsequent increased costs crippled the team over the course of the season, coupled with the loss of Pat Symonds.
Tragedy would strike twice for Marussia in the space of a couple of years as both race driver Jules Bianchi and test driver Maria de Villota lost their lives while driving for the team.
Their losses weighed heavy on the team and Bianchi’s accident led to Ferrari ending their partnership with the team at the end of 2014, losing them key finical and technical support. Although this would have likely have ended at the end of 2014 anyway, with strong rumours that Ferrari had agreed on a deal to place Bianchi at Sauber for 2015.
Before his tragic accident, Bianchi ended the team’s four-year points drought in Monaco with an excellent drive to ninth place. This was enough for the team to finish an incredible ninth that year in the championship, ahead of bitter rivals Caterham and even Sauber.
HRT had collapsed at the end of 2012 and Caterham and Marussia joined them in the ashes of failed F1 teams after the Russian Grand Prix. While Caterham was revived briefly, although only for a single race, it was Manor’s revival that was the truly remarkable off track story in the lead up to the 2015 season.
2015 was simply a case of survival for the renamed Manor-Marussia team, their only aim was to turn up to every race and collect the prize money at the end of the season in preparation for 2016. With a year-old engine and modified 2014 car, they had little hope of troubling anybody in qualifying or the race.
Ironically, their final season in the sport started with more promise than ever before. They seemed to have a quick car in testing and had Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein and heavily financed Indonesian, Rio Haryanto. Manor almost immediately delivered on this potential and really for the first time had a car that rarely locked out the back row, Wehrlein managed to break into Q2 on six occasions.
The team’s hard work was rewarded with a 10th place finish in Austria which moved them into tenth in the team’s standings. Similarly to 2012 they brutally lost that position in Brazil when Felipe Nasr bagged two points for rivals Sauber. This lost Manor millions in prize money and proved to be the killer blow that contributed to the team falling into administration once again.
Unlike in 2015, a last minute miracle couldn’t be found and it now seems as if Manor will join their fellow 2010 debutantes and the likes of Arrows and Super Aguri, as backmarkers who tried but ultimately failed to succeed in the harsh world of F1.
It’s a grave shame considering, they were closer than ever to the ultimate pace in 2016 and, in the second half of the season, arguably had their best driver pairing yet.
