Marussia Manor won't return to GP3 after F1 team closes doors

The team is the junior arm of the Marussia Formula 1 squad, which closed its doors in news announced earlier on Friday.

Marussia Manor missed the penultimate GP3 Series round last month at Sochi, and team boss Pete Sliwinski has confirmed to AUTOSPORT that the squad will not be at this month's Abu Dhabi finale.

Sliwinski added that the team will now regroup and look for alternative projects for the 2015 season.

"I'm glad this is out of the way because now we can get on with trying to revive something," he said.

"We're looking at Formula 3 - there are one or two things ongoing."

MANOR HISTORY

As Manor Motorsport, the Yorkshire-based team came to international prominence in F3.

Manor carried Marc Hynes to the British F3 title in 1999 - although Hynes's driving career stalled, he became head of driver development at the Marussia F1 team and recently made a return to the cockpit in the British Touring Car Championship.

The team then doubled up, with Antonio Pizzonia sweeping to the 2000 British F3 crown.

But it was in Formula Renault UK that the team launched its two biggest stars, with Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton taking the titles in 2000 and '03 respectively.

Hamilton stayed with the team as it moved from British F3 to the F3 Euro Series in 2004. It subsequently ran Lucas di Grassi, Paul di Resta, Kazuki Nakajima and Roberto Merhi.

Manor's first full season was 1990, with founder John Booth running Paulo Carcasci and car-racing rookie Jason Plato in FRUK, and Sliwinski quickly becoming Booth's right-hand man.

The team passed its Renault operation on to long-time engineer Tony Shaw and wife Sarah - who renamed it Manor Competition - in late 2006.

The Shaws subsequently wound down their team at the end of 2011, but have taken the Manor name to Dutch team MP Motorsport, which now runs as Manor MP.

Meanwhile, the Booth and Sliwinski-run Manor switched from F3 to GP3 in 2010, the same time as the F1 team came into being as Virgin Racing.