02/03/2017
NEWS STORY
Hopes of another last-minute saviour rescuing the beleaguered Manor F1 Team and getting it to the grid this season disappeared yesterday when the FIA published the finalised entry list for the forthcoming season.
Having gone into administration in January, there were hopes that as in late 2014/early 2015 the team might still be saved.
However, despite continued talks with a number of parties, Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd, which holds the rights to participate in the world championship, informed the FIA that it was withdrawing from the 2017 world championship having failed to find a buyer.
Its entry officially withdrawn, this would mean that anyone now attempting a 2015-style late purchase would need to enter as a new team, a protracted and costly business.
Ironically, the news came on the day Ross Brawn insisted that more must be done by the sport to assist the smaller teams.
Tavo Hellmund recently revealed that he was part of one of several interested parties and consortiums looking to buy the team, or even into it, but Felipe Nasr's drive to ninth in Brazil, which dropped Manor to last (eleventh) in the constructors' standings - and thereby out of the prize money - virtually killed off all hope.