Manor has Sauber in sight

At the end of the first six Grands Prix of the season, Manor and Sauber are fighting at the back of the grid for tenth place in the Championship. The two structures are the only teams not to have scored points yet this year. The Swiss team is struggling to reach the top ten, its progress being slowed by financial problems.

“Sauber remains a very competitive team, they have fantastic factories, but they clearly have money problems. If it puts them in trouble, that’s their problem, not ours.”, commented Dave Ryan, the competition director of Manor, to Reuters agency.

“We just look at them as any team to beat. Sauber happens to be the closest to us and they seem to some to be the most obvious target. Maybe they are, but we try to be able to beat everyone in front of us. We will be disappointed if we don’t finish in tenth place.”, added the New Zealander.

The only top ten achieved by the team remains the ninth place obtained by Jules Bianchi at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix.

“We want to become a strong mid-pack team, but we know it’s a game of patience. We won't be there this year or next year, rather in four or five seasons. We have clearly made progress this year, but the car is still far from being fast enough. We are still able to face certain competitors even though the performance gap was significant. We still need to make progress in all areas”, emphasized Dave Ryan.