Manor F1 team set to delay new car introduction to 2016

Though the team was forced to start the season with a modified 2014 car this season, after its last-minute revival having gone into administration, the plan was to introduce a new car at some point this year.

However, following a rebuild of the team, which included the recruitment of key personnel such as former Mercedes technical director Bob Bell, and the hectic schedule of the flyaway races to end the season, the team has switched strategy.

"The plan we had at the start of the year envisaged making some major change to the chassis and power unit during the 2015 season," Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon told AUTOSPORT.

"But as we developed and recruited more people, it became less and less feasible to go down that route and more and more advantageous to keep developing the next chassis.

"The rate of development of that chassis has been good and the optimum time to push that button was getting pushed back.

"Everyone is confident that when next car comes along, it will be a major step forward.

"I would imagine that is going to be next year. We're in flyaways now and with the production time and everything else, doing it this year would be tough."

With the early races of a season often offering the smaller teams their best chance to score points, Lowdon is keen to ensure Manor does not compromise next season in search of gains this term.

"Other teams managed to get points at certain stages where you have to say, if we compromise the 2016 build by building something new now, what reward would we get for that?" he said.

"It now looks more and more beneficial to keep design and keep getting the aero figures and progress on that rather than pressing button and manufacturing the car [now]."

Manor still plans to add updates to its current car but they will all be relevant to next year.

"I'm pretty sure we'll have some new things in Singapore and/or Japan," added Lowdon.

"There are a lot of upgrades which are applicable to next year's car so it's not costing us development time.

"They will not be detracting from our 2016 plans. If anything, it's complimentary, so yes, we'll definitely keep bringing things."