Chronicle of a death foretold

Just when the Manor team finally seemed stable after a difficult rebuilding effort, its long-standing leaders gave up and jumped ship. What will happen now?

Manor's journey in Formula 1 has been anything but easy. The team entered the sport in 2010 under Richard Branson's Virgin banner, alongside Caterham (formerly Team Lotus) and HRT, now defunct, with John Booth at the helm. Of these three newcomers, only Manor has survived.

From the outset, Virgin Racing attempted to position itself as a fun and entertaining alternative to Red Bull, but its results on the track fell far short of this ambition. The lack of performance and the high cost of running the team forced Branson to sell the title sponsorship to Russian car manufacturer Marussia, which renamed the team for 2012 and took a majority stake. The name change did little to improve results, but the low-budget team still outperformed Caterham and survived the departure of HRT that year. In 2014, the team maintained some stability with a Ferrari engine and the same driver duo: Britain's Max Chilton and France's Jules Bianchi. Bianchi scored the team's first points in Monaco, finishing ninth in a memorable race. Those points allowed the struggling Marussia to briefly escape the threat of liquidation. Tragedy struck on October 5 during the Japanese Grand Prix, in heavy rain, when Bianchi lost control of his car, crashed into a recovery tractor, and suffered injuries that proved fatal nine months later, plunging Formula 1 and the team into mourning.

At the end of the season, the team was placed into administration, with its future looking bleak. Long-time team principals John Booth and Graeme Lowdon worked behind the scenes to find a new backer, eventually turning to Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder of OVO Energy. Fitzpatrick's investment and credibility allowed Manor to retain its Ferrari engine and start 2015 on a relatively solid footing, despite massive staff cuts and the threat of having its equipment auctioned off.

The 2015 season saw the team survive and lay the groundwork for 2016, securing the supply of Mercedes engines, which made the team attractive to drivers eager to drive a world championship-winning engine. However, with two races remaining in the 2015 season, Booth and Lowdon announced that they would be stepping down at the end of the season, citing a disagreement with Fitzpatrick over the direction of the team. Their departure, combined with that of technical director Bob Bell, left Manor without its key leadership. Today, without clearly identified technical or administrative leaders, Manor finds itself at a precarious turning point. After overcoming countless setbacks to remain on the starting grid, the team's future is uncertain, and another misstep could prove fatal.