Manor has confirmed on Wednesday (4/3/15) that it will return and race in next weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. While yesterday (5/3/15), it was confirmed that the team pass all the FIA's mandatory crash tests with its interim car will start the season, while a new 2015 race car will be introduce at a later date.
The team also confirmed that energy boss Stephen Fitzpatrick is the new investor, with former Sainsbury's CEO Justin King installed as an interim Team Chairman. While Graeme Lowdon will act as Manor's President and Sporting Director, with John Booth remaining as Team Principal.
Overall, this is great news for the team, as they will be ready to race at next weekends Australian Grand Prix in limited amount of time coming out of administration from last month.
The next question is for Manor who will be Will Stevens team-mate in Australia. No word yet on who will partner Will Stevens at Manor, but the rumour is it might be another young driver as-well. As it won't be former driver Max Chilton, as he was confirmed on Monday (2/5/15) that he will race with Nissan in the World Endurance Championship this season in the all new GT-R LM Nismo LMP1 car. As-well as that he will also be racing with Carlin in Indy Lights Series as-well this season.
It was confirmed this morning (3/3/15) from McLaren that Fernando Alonso will sit out the Australian Grand Prix in the wake of his testing crash at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with McLaren reverse driver Kevin Magnussen replacing him.
Alonso suffered concussion in an accident on the final day of the second pre-season gathering (22/2/15), and spent three nights in hospital before returning home to recover.
McLaren released a statement this morning says that Fernando is very healthy but doctors don't want him in a situation where he could possibly get another concussion and cause further damage. And with concussions do take time to heal and it isn't worth risking a brain injury to race at a Grand Prix. With Alonso hopeful of returning at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen will replace Alonso for Albert Park, which he finished in second place at his debut Grand Prix last year.
In my opinion, it was the right call from the doctors and McLaren not to race Alonso if his not 100% fit in the head. This was more of long term health rather then thinking short term. And with the state of McLaren race car being too slow and unreliable with the new Honda power unit at the moment, it was right choice for McLaren to rest Fernando Alonso and replace him with Kevin Magnussen for a Grand Prix or two.
As for Fernando Alonso, get well soon and lets have a 100% Fernando back to race in Formula 1.
With recent news that Formula One car designer Gérard Ducarouge (23 October 1941 – 19 February 2015) who passed away on last Thursday after a long battle against illness. Ducarouge worked for a number of teams in his 27 year period in Formula 1, includes Matra, Ligier, Alfa Romeo, Team Lotus, Larrousse and Ligier once again. Winning many races and winning a drivers' and constructors' title in his time in F1.
R.I.P. Gérard Ducarouge (23 October 1941 – 19 February 2015).
So this post is the Gérard Ducarouge race cars (does include other race car that did race outside of Formula 1), starting with Number 6:
Number 6: 1981 Ligier JS17
Story: Ligier JS17 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Michel Beaujon. The Ligier JS17 had the Matra 3 litre V12 engine underneath. The Ligier JS17 took Ligier to fourth in the Constructors standings in 1981, almost took Jacques Laffite to the 1981 Drivers' title and took two wins for Jacques Laffite at the Österreichring and Montreal.
Number 5: 1986 Lotus 98T
Story: Lotus 98T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie. The Lotus 98T had the Renault 1.5 litre V6 turbo engine underneath, which produce over 1200bhp in qualifying and around 800bhp in race pace. The Lotus 98T was dubbed as the fastest Lotus ever! The Lotus 98T took Lotus to third in the Constructors standings in 1986 and took two wins for Ayrton Senna at Jerez and Detroit.
Number 4: 1987 Lotus 99T
Story: Lotus 99T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie, and was the first Formula 1 and Lotus chassis to be fitted with electronic active suspension. Also, the Lotus 99T had the Honda 1.5 litre V6 turbo engine underneath, which produce over 1000bhp in qualifying and around 790bhp in race pace. The Lotus 99T took Lotus to third in the Constructors standings in 1987 and took two wins for Ayrton Senna at Monaco, Detroit and the final Grand Prix win for Team Lotus.
Number 3: 1979-80 Ligier JS11
Story: The Ligier JS11 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge, Michel Beaujon and Robert Choulet; and was the first ground effect F1 car for the Ligier Team, the Ligier JS11 was powered by the 3 litre V8 Cosworth DFV engine. Overall the Ligier JS11 took five Grand Prix wins between 1979 and 1980, three for Jacques Laffite and one each for Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi. While the Ligier JS11 took Ligier to third in the Constructors standings in 1979, and second in the the Constructors standings in 1980 the highest for Ligier as a team ever achieved.
Number 2: 1972-74 Matra MS670
Story: Matra MS670 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Robert Choulet, the Matra MS670 uses a Matra 3 litre V12 engine and produces over 450bhp. Matra MS670 took three Le Mans victories in a row in 1972, 1973 and 1974. In 1972, Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill took a Malta one-two in the race. While in 1973 and 1974, Henri Pescarolo and Gérard Larrousse took back to back victories in the Matra MS670B and Matra MS670C. While the Matra MS670 took two World Championship for Makes titles to Matra in 1973 and 1974.
Number 1: 1969 Matra MS80
Story: The Matra MS80 was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer, the Matra MS80 was powered by the 3 litre V8 Cosworth DFV engine. Which, took the Matra MS80 to five wins in 1969, all five wins for Jackie Stewart. Which took, Jackie Stewart to the 1969 F1 Drivers' Title, his first of three titles, and Matra to its only Constructors' Championships in 1969.
No word who will partner Will Stevens at Manor this season yet, I will guess that news will follow soon. But this is a great opportunity ahead for Will Stevens for this season.
Meanwhile, Manor F1 Team, also announced that it expects to be ready to compete in the Australian Grand Prix just under two weeks time.
Although Manor could get dispensation to miss the opening rounds of the season, a statement from the team said it currently intended to race in Melbourne in two weeks time. Said it will start the season with a modified 2014 car as an interim measure to suit 2015 rules.
Last week, Oreca revealed their all new-2015 LMP2 contender, which will debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series later this year called the Oreca 05.
The Oreca 05, is the successor to the Oreca 03 LMP2 car, and is based off from the Oreca designed Rebellion R-One LMP1 car.
KCMG Team will campaign the new Oreca 05 in the FIA WEC series, while Thiriet by TDS Racing Team will contest the Oreca 05 in the ELMS series, as-well as this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
Other additional customer teams are expected later in the year and next season, while both teams will be powered by the Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 engine underneath.
While the new Oreca 05 is expected to make its public on-track debut during the ELMS official pre-season test at Paul Ricard next month.
The Manor F1 Team has agreed a deal to use old Ferrari engines this year it was confirmed yesterday (20/02/15), as work continues on trying to get back on to the grid.
Following the news from Thursday, that Manor F1 Team is coming out of administration, the team's chiefs are continuing to put together deals that they need for a return. A key thing is to overcome was agreeing an engine deal, with Ferrari one of the main creditors left when Manor went into administration last year. However, at the Barcelona F1 test, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene revealed that verbal agreement had been reached for the Maranello outfit to supply year-old engines in 2015.
Manor has been working to get a 2015-spec car ready in time for before the third round of the 2015 F1 season at the Chinese Grand Prix in mid-April, and thus claim the valuable prize money which it won last season for finishing ninth in the constructors' championship.
Manor F1 Team's hopes of returning to the Formula 1 grid have received another boost after their administrators agreed to bring the company out of administration it was confirmed yesterday (19/2/15).
The team, which ran under Marussia last season, went into administration last October after missing the final three races of the year. Manor's hopes of returning to the sport appeared to suffer a setback when Force India voted against a concession that would have allowed the team to run a modified 2014-spec car to start the season. But the sport's governing body the FIA said last week that it would keep the entry list open as long as possible to give the team, which has already paid its entry fee, the best chance of making it onto the grid.
Manor has been working to get a 2015-spec car ready in time for before the Chinese Grand Prix in mid-April, and thus claim the valuable prize money which it won last season for finishing ninth in the constructors' championship. News that the team has entered an arrangement called a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA), which has involved restructuring its financial debt, means the team now has a platform to allow it to continue in Formula 1.
Lets hope Manor will be on the F1 grid in 2015 after getting out of administration.
