Manor has praised Ferrari for sparing the team from Formula 1 extinction as it plans for its new future with Mercedes. The F1 outfit announced this month that it is to be supplied power units by Mercedes from 2016, as well as rekindling a former supply relationship with Williams for transmission and other components.
It will mean the end of two years working with Ferrari, who came to Manor's aid at the start of the season by agreeing to supply a year-old spec engine as the team emerged from administration.
"We've had a special relationship with Ferrari because this team wouldn't exist without Ferrari. It's a statement of fact. If [CEO] Sergio Marchionne and [team principal] Maurizio Arrivabene hadn't agreed to supply us with an engine for this season we wouldn't be here. End of story. We've got to be eternally grateful to them because that was a key moment in our survival this season.
Obviously we've since had to operate this season with a one-year-old engine. In turn, the progress made by Ferrari in the development of their engine from 2014 to 2015 has just been spectacular. They've done an unbelievably fantastic job. It has highlighted the fact we've been at a disadvantage performance-wise this year. But we always knew that, and it has been a better class of problem to deal with compared to insolvency and liquidation, which were the alternatives," sporting president Graeme Lowdon told Autosport.
Despite that relationship with Ferrari, and the gains made by the Scuderia this season, Lowdon felt for the team's long-term future it would be in a better position with Mercedes and Williams.
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