Manor team decides to miss post-Spanish GP test at Barcelona

AUTOSPORT understands a prominent GP2 driver approached Manor about the prospect of an outing, and was prepared to pay a reasonable sum of money for the drive.

Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon, however, believes there would be little gain for the team being involved in the test scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT, Lowdon said: "We've nothing to test, so there's not a lot of point in us doing it, with our resources better spent elsewhere at the moment.

"The guys have done a really good job in getting on top of this car quickly, so we know the car pretty well and we know what it's capable of from last year.

"This year we can already see we are getting quite a bit out of it, so there is nothing to be achieved from a technical point of view."

Asked about the approaches from other drivers, Lowdon added: "There were some possibilities in that area, but it was the wrong time and focus for us.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say it would be a distraction, that would be incorrect, but it's just not the optimum thing for us to be doing."

"Yes, the money would be welcome, but equally these cars are pretty expensive to run.

"At the moment we have a really clear plan we are going along with, and that's because our season is different to everybody else.

"It's just the wrong time and place to really make use of the test the way the other teams will do, so the value is not there for us to do it."