Previous grand prix driver Alexander Wurz won’t get to be team primary at the Manor team.
The Austrian will resign from racing after this present weekend’s World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain. Then again, he has told Manor boss Stephen Fitzpatrick he has different arrangements.
On talking with BBC Sports, Wurz said, “After a period of consideration, I have informed Stephen Fitzpatrick that I have taken the decision not to make myself available to Manor.”
Manor team boss John Booth and sports director Graeme Lowdon have surrendered – their last race with the team will be the season finale in Abu Dhabi in November – and Dave Ryan has been designated as racing director. Fitzpatrick said he and Wurz had examined the part of team important however that a formal occupation offer was not made.
Fitzpatrick said: “We haven’t offered the post of team principal to anyone but I have been talking to a lot of people and asking for advice. I have asked a lot of people a lot of things.”
Whitmarsh said,”I do not intend to become team principal at Manor.”
Whitmarsh is chief executive officer of the Ben Ainslie Racing America’s Cup team as the multiple Olympic champions prepares for the next America’s Cup in 2017, following his victory with Oracle Team USA in 2013.
Wurz, who is president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and also an adviser to the board of the Williams team, praised Fitzpatrick’s decision to save Manor from oblivion last winter and his decisions to secure Mercedes engines and a technical partnership with Williams for next year. Fitzpatrick, the boss of the energy firm Ovo, bought Manor last winter after the team, which raced as Marussia in 2014, went into administration and missed the final three races of last season. Fitzpatrick said: “Stephen did a smart move to buy the team, and his signing with Williams and Mercedes show he’s both serious and ambitious about the team’s future.”
Manor have yet to name any drivers for 2015, however among those connected to the team are ebb and flow drivers Will Stevens, Alexander Rossi and Roberto Merhi, and in addition Indonesian GP2 driver Rio Haryanto and previous McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen, who raced for McLaren in 2014 yet has been discharged by the team following a year as their store driver, is additionally in the running for a position with the Porsche World Endurance team in the wake of inspiring in a test a week ago.
