Manor MRT05 2016 Formula One
Manor's new MRT05 Formula One race car
was unveiled today, featuring a new design, a red, blue and white color combo,
and a powerful Mercedes PU106C Hybrid engine.
After spending most of their winter
getting the car ready for a new F1 season and signing two promising young
drivers in Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto, Manor seems determined to finally
move up from the bottom of the field.
According to technical director John
McQuilliam, the MRT05 "is a contender. We really believe that. The design
team have focused almost exclusively on it since the middle of last season and
it's just a whole different ballgame to any of its predecessors."
Some 3,393 different in-house components
went into building the MRT05, with almost nothing being carried over from last
year's car - except for the fire extinguisher, as McQuilliam pointed out
jokingly.
McQuilliam also added that his team
hasn't "left any performance on the table and right now I can say there's
not a single part of the car we'd have designed differently." Racing director Dave Ryan even went a
step further claiming that Manor is "done with just turning up to make
everyone else look good" and that everybody on the team is looking for
respectability and competitiveness.
Sounds to us like they're ready to take
the fight to the likes of Sauber and perhaps Haas - since these are the teams
that have the biggest question marks on them at the moment from a grid
placement perspective.
Now with a Mercedes power unit and a
Williams gearbox, should we actually expect Manor Racing to score double digit
points in 2016? So far, the odds aren't necessarily against them.
