According to latest reports, the Manor Formula One team may have been on the grid for the upcoming 2017 Formula One Championship season, if they had agreed terms with Tavo Hellmund, the man responsible for bringing the pinnacle of Motorsports to the Circuit of the Americas.
Hellmund was never really interested in being a team owner, stating that the best way to make a small fortune in the series was to start with a big one, however for the past 18 months he has need trying to acquire the smallest team on the grid and revealed that at one point they had even agreed to terms with an offer of 22 million pounds, however, losing that coveted tenth place in the constructors championship shattered the dream…
“They were starting to come to our terms, and then Brazil happened,” Hellmund said in my Statesman, referring to the wet race where Sauber's Felipe Nasr scored two points, effectively pushing Manor out of the top ten and out of the running for essential prize money.
According to the report, the team needed to finish in the top ten twice in three years and by missing out on 2016, it set things up for future failure and making a desperate sale a far less than attractive proposal.
As a result, the offers were withdrawn and the team went into administration last month.