MANOR TO RUN GINETTA LMP1

Manor has become the first team to join up with Ginetta’s new LMP1 venture, and will field a car in the World Endurance Championship in 2018.

Manor first entered the WEC in 2016 after Graeme Lowdon and John Booth parted company with the Formula 1 team of the same name.

Manor WEC fielded a brace of LMP2 ORECAS last year, and will continue to do so this season before expanding into the P1 category with Ginetta’s new design in 2018.

Lowdon said: “With what is happening in P1 at the moment, we believe that 2018 could be the right time to enter as a privateer. We’ve been talking to Ginetta for some time and think that a P1 programme will play to our strengths as a group that has previously built its own cars.

“As always, it is subject to finance, but if we don’t start working on our plans now, it won’t happen.”

Lowdon added that he saw the LMP1 programme as an expansion of Manor WEC, and that the team was planning to stick with P2 for the foreseeable future also.

“We see P1 as an addition and not an alternative,” he added. “We are committed to LMP2 and it is our main focus for 2017.”

Manor’s two-car WEC entry is expected to be officially announced on February 2.