01/06/2015
NEWS STORY
Under the technical leadership of John McQuilliam, its Technical Director, the team has recruited Luca Furbatto in the role of Head of Design. Furbatto previously held the position of Chief Designer with Toro Rosso, prior to which he spent nearly a decade with McLaren.
The Yorkshire team also welcomes Gianluca Pisanello in the role of Chief Engineer. Most recently, Pisanello held the role of Head of Engineering Operations with Caterham F1 Team. Before this, he worked in various engineering positions with Caterham and Toyota Motorsport. He will lead a young and highly ambitious group of race, performance and strategy engineers supporting Manor's race drivers.
The team has also announced that assisting the team for the 2015 season is Bob Bell, the former technical director of the Mercedes F1 and team principal of Renault F1 teams, whose career has spanned roles at McLaren, Benetton and Jordan and includes winning two Constructors Championships.
Bell will act as a technical consultant, applying his considerable industry experience supporting and advising Manor's senior management as they rebuild the team and formulate an ambitious long term plan.
"We're delighted to welcome Bob, Luca, and Gianluca to the team," said John Booth. "It's been a dramatic but rewarding start to our 2015 season, and we're only now able to settle into more of a rhythm, allowing us to look to the future. Our focus this season is to re-build the foundations of the team and develop our internal capabilities.
"As ever in Formula One, we rely on the experience, tenacity and drive of our colleagues, so we're delighted to welcome our new teammates. Each of them brings a huge amount of experience from within the sport, adding further dimensions to our existing technical and engineering capability. Whilst we seek to optimise our performance during the remainder of the 2015 season, we can also turn our attention to the next exciting chapter in our story - 2016 and beyond."
For a team that was all but dead and buried a few months back, this is a very positive move, whilst the recruitment, albeit as support and advisor, of Bob Bell is particularly interesting. Could this be the first move in a possible buy-out?