Lowdon confirms Manor exit

Manor Sporting Director Graeme Lowdon has confirmed that he, and Team Principal John Booth will be leaving the team at the end of the year. Rumours of their departure circulated during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, after a disagreement with team owner Stephen Fitzpatrick over the team’s future.

Lowdon said: "Abu Dhabi's going to my last race with the team. The most important task this year was to make sure that the team continued racing.

“We had to stop before the end of last season, we weren't in Abu Dhabi last year, and that required an awful lot of hard work and an awful lot of commitment as well. It's quite well documented, the staff were all made redundant on the 7th of November, 2014 and things looked pretty bleak at that particular time.

"My own opinion is that Formula 1 racing teams are pretty precious things and something that deserves effort in making sure it continues. Certainly my belief in the team at that stage never wavered once. We worked very, very hard to make sure that the team was in a position to continue racing. And we had a lot of help."

"From my point of view, this has been a pretty difficult season but that's secondary to the fact that the team continues, and that's the most important thing."

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