Manor enter administration

The Manor Racing Formula One team has entered administration.

Bankrolled by energy industry executive Stephen Fitzpatrick for the last two years, Manor has been talking to potential investors in recent months but discussions have broken down, leaving the team on the brink of collapse.

"The decision comes after several months of discussions with investors in an effort to secure the best future for the team: discussions that had recently progressed with a particular investor to the signing of heads of terms," a statement from Manor read.

"Unfortunately, the investor was unable to advance a final agreement in a timescale that would have avoided impacting upon the team's 2017 racing programme and the directors have had no alternative but to place the team in administration."

FRP Advisory have been appointed as administrators and will work to keep the team afloat ahead of the 2017 season, which gets underway in Australia on March 26.

"The team has made significant progress under its new ownership since the start of 2015, the highlight of which included securing a constructors' championship point in the preceding F1 season, but the position remains that operating a F1 team requires significant ongoing investment," joint administrator Geoff Rowley said in a statement.

"During recent months, the senior management team has worked tirelessly to bring new investment to the team to secure its long term future, but regrettably has been unable to do so within the time available.

"Therefore, they have been left with no alternative but to place JRSL into administration.

"The joint administrators are currently assessing options for the Group."

Regarding the possibility of Manor being on the grid for the season-opener in Melbourne, Rowley added: "The team's participation will depend on the outcome of the administration process and any related negotiations with interested parties in what is a very limited window of opportunity.

"No redundancies have been made following JRSL's entering into administration and all staff have been paid in full to the end of December.

"The ongoing staff position will however be dependent on whether new investment can be secured in the limited time available and the joint administrators will continue to review the ongoing financial position."

Formerly known as Marussia, the team entered administration at the end of 2014 with debts in the region of £35million and was forced to sit out the final three races of the season.

It was later recused by Fitzpatrick and rebranded under the Manor name but the team has continued to struggle and it suffered a blow at the end of the 2016 season when Sauber scored two points at the Brazilian Grand Prix to move ahead of them in the constructors standings.

Failure to finish tenth in the constructors' championship is understood to have cost Manor in the region of £10million in prize money.

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