Manor Racing Team



When at the end of 2006 Ford announced they would join F1 with their sub-brand Spyker, the Formula 1 paddock was in shock. Nobody was expecting a "Ford" factory team to enter F1 after they had exclusively been supplying the Auraline team with Ford Cosworth V8's. The American-Dutch outfit launched there first ever car with a striking livery and trailer on the 26th of February 2007. They also hired ex Dutch racing driver Maurits van Coevorden to lead the team. Everything was looking good, especially with veteran Mark Webber and promising rookie Scott Speed. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

2007
The team was heavily underfunded and finished last in the 2007 F1 season. Preparations were already underway for the 2008 season but because of the financial crisis Ford pulled out together with Cosworth and Spyker was left there with no money so the team was put up for sale.

2008
Late in the off-season, an announcement was made. Feeder series team Manor Racing team partnered up with a collection of investors. The team was named KLM Manor Racing Team due to the connections team boss Maurits van Coevorden had with the Dutch aviation company. Losing Mark Webber to Brawn GP was a massive loss for the team but they got F1 superstar Felipe Massa to drive for the struggling team instead who lost his seat due to Red Bull pulling out the sport. It was an exciting driver paring which looked very fast during pre-season. Massa put in some good laps for the young team with Speed taking up the data gathering role; all looked good. Manor tried to avoid the mistakes made by Spyker but it was tough because of the funding problems. The team got off to a decent start but the results came in later down the line with Massa scoring 3 unexpected podiums with Speed actually managing to get a 5th place in Belgium. This was something nobody had seen coming from the what looked like underfunded team. In the end, Manor finished fifth in their debut season. This was also the year Manor debuted there junior team named Cow Rouge motorsport in the European Formula 3 championship with Sergio Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne driving the 2 cars for the feeder series team.