Formula One was in a state of shock here on Friday amid reports that John Booth and Graeme Lowdon, the men behind the popular Manor team, had both resigned.
So the future of the team that went into administration last season and had to cope with tragedy of the death of one of their drivers, Jules Bianchi, who was fatally injured in last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, is once again in doubt.
It is understood that the sporting director, Lowdon, and team principal, Booth, have fallen out with the owner, Stephen Fitzpatrick, about the direction the team is taking.
Fitzpatrick, the founder of the energy company Ovo, is the man who appeared to have saved Manor from possible oblivion in February, when he fronted a rescue deal to enable them to compete this year.
Manor were given special dispensation to compete with an old-spec Ferrari engine. But they had recently turned to Mercedes to provide their power unit for 2016 and there was optimism in the team about improved results next year. They are pointless and at the bottom of the constructors’ championship this season.
But Lowdon and Booth, who were not available for comment, have not been able to agree with Fitzpatrick about the future funding of the team, despite a number of investors showing interest in buying in.
Manor, which entered Formula One in 2010 as Virgin, and then became Marussia, had recovered from administration on the back of a £30m cash injection from the sport for finishing in the top 10 in each of the past two seasons.
But Lowdon and Booth both believe that further investment is needed if the team is not to become a permanent fixture at the back of the grid.
There has been interest, notably from the race promoter Tavo Hellmund and financier James Carney. But nothing has come of it.
Manor is everyone’s favourite second team. Unlike the big boys at Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull they compete in the world’s most glamorous sport on a shoestring budget. And they do so with a passion for racing which evokes memories of the finest traditions of Formula One.
Lowdon and Booth are likely to remain in place to the end of the season. But if they do go – and they would be followed by many more – it would mark the team’s worst crisis in its very troubled history.
