Dave Greenwood has worked in Formula One as Kimi Raikkonen‘s race engineer since 2015, but has stepped away from the role as he moves over to WEC to aid Manor with their 2018/19 campaign.
Manor Racing are the only team to have confirmed they will use Ginetta‘s new LMP1 car as they progress in to the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship this season. However, the British team have admitted they believe the complexity of developing an LMP1 car will need more expert eyes. This was the main factor behind their recent appointment of Greenwood as technical director.
Ahead of the new season, sporting director Graeme Lowdon told Motorsport.com,“Racing at the level we will be competing at in the super season will require an F1-level technical set-up — the only difference is the letter in front of the ‘1’.
“The demands of F1 and P1 are different, but the skill-set is the same and that’s why we have created the position of technical director and brought in Dave.
“In LMP2 [in which Manor entered the sportscar arena in 2016] it is much more about the racing rather than developing the car, which is why we didn’t have a chief engineer or anything like that.”
In the past, Greenwood has worked with Lowdon and Manor Racing team boss John Booth, taking Virgin Racing into F1 in 2010. The trio are fairly knowledgable in bringing a new team into a highly competitive sport and the prospects are looking good with the management team so strong for the LMP1 campaign.
Due to contract obligations, Greenwood will not be with Manor for the Prologue in April, but should be formally part of the team in time for the first round at Spa-Francorchamps in May.
No drivers for the Manor LMP1 effort have yet been announced, with the team only purchasing one Ginetta challenger so far. It has not been ruled out that the British racers may field a second car in the 2018/19 super season. It can be assumed that they will, at least, be running two cars at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.
