Manor’s new MRT05 Formula One race car was unveiled today, featuring a new design, a red, blue and white color combo, and a powerful Mercedes PU106C Hybrid engine.
After spending most of their winter getting the car ready for a new F1 season and signing two promising young drivers in Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto, Manor seems determined to finally move up from the bottom of the field.
According to technical director John McQuilliam, the MRT05 “is a contender. We really believe that. The design team have focused almost exclusively on it since the middle of last season and it’s just a whole different ballgame to any of its predecessors.”
Some 3,393 different in-house components went into building the MRT05, with almost nothing being carried over from last year’s car – except for the fire extinguisher, as McQuilliam pointed out jokingly.
McQuilliam also added that his team hasn’t “left any performance on the table and right now I can say there’s not a single part of the car we’d have designed differently.”
Racing director Dave Ryan even went a step further claiming that Manor is “done with just turning up to make everyone else look good” and that everybody on the team is looking for respectability and competitiveness.
Sounds to us like they’re ready to take the fight to the likes of Sauber and perhaps Haas – since these are the teams that have the biggest question marks on them at the moment from a grid placement perspective.
Now with a Mercedes power unit and a Williams gearbox, should we actually expect Manor Racing to score double digit points in 2016? So far, the odds aren’t necessarily against them.
PHOTO GALLERY
