With a P13 finish for Pascal Wehrlein in Bahrain, Manor appears to be moving away from a season of uncompetitive races and heading toward becoming a mid-field challenger. Although there is still some work to do before the car will reach its peak performance, the team is confident that they can build on their success thus far in 2016.
“The car was really quick on the straights [in Bahrain] and there are a couple of good ones here at Shanghai,” explained Pascal Wehrlein. “What we know from Bahrain though is that there’s some more work to do to get the best from the car throughout the lap. There is still a lot we can do to continue improving the set-up and here we need a good compromise from straights to turns. It’s quite a challenging track so I’m looking forward to getting started.”
This will be both of the Manor drivers’ first outing at the Shanghai International Circuit in a Formula One car, although Rio Haryanto has driven the track in other racing categories during his career. “It’s a track I know really well from my Asian Formula Renault Challenge and Formula BMW Pacific days. It’s fun and challenging to drive so it will be nice to come back here and see how it feels in a Formula 1 car,” he said. “Hopefully we will have made some further improvements with the set-up and I can feel a little more confident with the car.”
Despite having never raced at the circuit, Wehrlein is looking forward to free practice one to get his first taste of the Shanghai International Circuit. “It’s great fun getting to grips with a new circuit and once you’ve done a few laps, it’s not such a big issue, as long as the weather is on your side so you can build momentum,” he told the press on Wednesday. “I walked the track last year with Mercedes and obviously I’ve prepared on the simulator, so I just want to get stuck into FP1 now and see how our package performs here.”
The circuit is very demanding, specifically on the brakes and tyres due to the complex combination of corners and straights. Managing these components is vital for an ideal performance in the Chinese Grand Prix. The performance of the power unit is also vital in China, as the circuit contains a few long straights. The team’s racing director, Dave Ryan, highlighted tyre wear as a big challenge for the team, saying: “We’ve suffered a bit with tyre wear in the past two races and it’s an area we’re spending a lot of time thinking about.”
Wehrlein is confident that the car has not yet reached its maximum performance and that there is a lot more performance left in the MRT05, which will surface in the near future. “We’ve only just begun to extract some of the potential from the car so it was a good sign that there’s even more to come.”
Impressive Result For Manor
Haryanto Technically Won The Driver Of The Day
MRT05 Is The Most Appealing Car Of 2016
