Graeme Lowdon has revealed that the Manor F1 Team have switched strategy and will no longer introduce a new car for 2015 as it had been hoping to do this season.
The Sporting Director insists the team are now focused on 2016, feeling a new car now would not benefit them as much as it would have done had other teams not scored as many points as they have in 2015.
The team have been running this season with a modified 2014 Marussia car, but will now continue to utilise that car until the conclusion of this season before introducing an all-new Manor car for 2016.
“The plan we had at the start of the year envisaged making some major change to the chassis and power unit during the 2015 season,” said Lowdon to Autosport.
“But as we developed and recruited more people, it became less and less feasible to go down that route and more and more advantageous to keep developing the next chassis.
“The rate of development of that chassis has been good and the optimum time to push that button was getting pushed back. Everyone is confident that when next car comes along, it will be a major step forward.
“I would imagine that is going to be next year. We’re in flyaways now and with the production time and everything else, doing it this year would be tough.
“Other teams managed to get points at certain stages where you have to say, if we compromise the 2016 build by building something new now, what reward would we get for that?
“It now looks more and more beneficial to keep design and keep getting the aero figures and progress on that rather than pressing button and manufacturing the car [now].”
