Manor announced that Rio Haryanto will partner Pascal Wehrlein for the 2016 season. Here’s a look at the 23-year-old’s journey to F1.
Haryanto was born in Surakarta, Indonesia, and is set to become the first driver to compete in F1 from the country. He first tasted big success in 2006 when he won the Asian Karting Open Championship and made his jump into single seaters two years later.
In his first year he finished the Formula Asia 2.0 series in third place, taking one victory and seven podiums, impressive considering he was just 15.
The next season he mainly competed in the Formula BMW Pacific Championship. He won the series by some distance, after achieving 12 podiums, including 11 wins from 15 races.
2010 was the beginning of his Manor relationship, when he drove for the team in the GP3 Championship. He finished fifth and was the highest placed driver for the Manor team so was duly given the chance to test for Virgin Racing in Abu Dhabi.
Great news! We've signed Rio Haryanto to our second seat. Our young & hungry 2016 line-up is complete. https://t.co/8uSU6L3doY #F1
— Manor Racing (@ManorRacing) February 18, 2016
His test however, was unsuccessful as he suffered gearbox problems and finished last of the thirteen drivers.
The next season he continued to race for Manor in the GP3 series, but could only managed seventh, and his teammate was given the opportunity to test in Abu Dhabi that year as he finished higher than Haryanto in the standings.
In 2012, Haryanto made the move up to GP2, racing for Carlin. He wouldn’t make any podium finishes and finished just 14th overall. However, he gained a reputation as a wet weather specialist after he put the car on pole at a rain-soaked Spa.
The next two years he raced for Barwa Addax Team, then the EQ8 Caterham Team, where he partnered Alexander Rossi. He achieved two podiums across two seasons and couldn’t finish any higher than 15th in the championship.
He then moved over to Campos Racing for the 2015 season, and finally tasted success when he won the sprint race at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He would go on to take five podiums included three race wins that year, and finished fourth overall.
He took part in the Abu Dhabi tyre tests with Manor at the end of 2015, and has now been announced as the 22nd and final driver for the 2016 season.
