Pat Fry discusses Manor growth

Pat Fry has spoken of Manor Racing Team's plans to grow and move further up the grid.

The team, which joined Formula One as Virgin Racing in 2010, was rescued by OVO Energy boss at the eleventh hour after going bankrupt at the end of 2014 and has since steadily built it's way back up.

At the end of last season the team hired former McLaren Sporting director Dave Ryan. He was joined by Ex-Ferrari men Nicholas Tombazis and Fry earlier this year.

Speaking of the team's revival, Fry, who serves as an Engineering Consultant to the team, said that it's been a big step from almost going out of busines to scoring points again.

"It’s quite a large charge from surviving through to competing and that affects the whole organisation, all the way from what we are doing at the factory – from the wind tunnel to the design office, all the reliability side of things – all the way through to the track really," Fry told Planet F1. "It has knock-on necessities where we need to improve absolutely everywhere through the organisation."

Now with a secure future, Fry says the team is looking to slowly move forward, and plans to do so by steadily improving everything in the team.

"There’s a plan for us to grow in a sensible, controlled way but we need to address all those areas – everything from pit stop speed, which we were… to put it a polite way, it was challenging at the beginning of the year, with the same guys and modifying everything – it’s all the detail work that you need to do and it just takes time," said Fry. "The same thing with putting the processes in place so that you can keep a reliable car reliable. There’s a huge task but everyone’s interested."

"We’re still quite small at the moment. We’re growing quite quickly but we’re still only, whatever… 170 people or something of that order and our next competitor is the thick end of 500 people," he added. "There’s a lot to do and we just have to have a sensible plan to grow the organisation to compete sensibly."

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