Manor’s John Booth was one of very many happy men DSC spoke with while walking the paddock this morning. It’s safe to say that so far, he and his team are very happy in their new home in the WEC.
Manor, who is due to move into its new base at Silverstone imminently, will run one car at the test in its full-season Oreca 05. The second chassis which will run in the WEC at each round aside from the Le Mans 24 Hours hasn’t been delivered to the team. It will be at the circuit tomorrow, but will not run.
Five drivers are here, though only four will take the wheel during the two days of running at Ricard. The final driver for the team, who will be revealed by next Tuesday, is the final piece to the puzzle in this year’s grid.
The full-season #44 car (the car that will run at Le Mans) is brand new, and was still being stickered up with a very striking livery designed by Graeme Lowdon this morning. The other, is the un-raced spare KCMG chassis from last season.
“It did get a run this morning briefly, but the test will be the first time it gets a real bed in,” Booth told DSC.
“It’s great, the atmosphere is very refreshing compared to what we had in F1. I was getting my hands dirty building the garage up this morning with the guys, which was good fun, it’s something I hadn’t done in years.
“We’re really happy to be here, the guys have been frantically getting the car built in the last two weeks.
“As a team, there’s energy, we’ve got six of us over from the F1 team including me. We look forward to getting started.”
Stephen Kilbey
