Dave Ryan is pleased with the performance made by Manor Racing during the first half of the 2016 Formula 1 season.
The last Grand Prix before the three-week Summer Break was at the Hockenheimring, where Pascal Wehrlein finished in seventeenth and Rio Haryanto in twentieth. There was brief contact between the drivers after Haryanto tried overtaking Wehrlein, with Haryanto having to change his front wing due to damage sustained but both cars were still able to finish.
Ryan believes Manor’s strategy worked really well at the German Grand Prix. With their performance matching the cars around them as Wehrlein finished ahead of the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and the Renault Sport of Jolyon Palmer.
“It’s really good to end the first half of the season on a positive note with a good team result at Pascal and Mercedes-Benz’ home Grand Prix,” said racing director Ryan. “Our strategy worked well and our performance was strong versus the cars around us, which enabled us to displace Sauber and a Renault.
“We did pick up a bit of damage on both cars when we had contact between our two drivers, which was less than ideal, but fortunately it didn’t hurt our race as much as it could and obviously we need to avoid that in the future and focus on the fight with our competitors.”
Manor head into the Summer Break with one point to their name after Wehrlein finished in tenth at the Austrian Grand Prix, which means the team are currently in tenth in the Constructor Standings, ahead of Sauber.
“As we embark on the summer break I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the team – trackside and back at base – for a tremendous effort in the first 12 races,” said Ryan. “It has been a real challenge and a huge amount of hard work.
“We head into the shutdown period with our first point and ahead of Sauber in the championship. I look forward to seeing everyone refreshed in four weeks’ time so we can keep things that way.”
