Manor wants to fight: & # 34; It won't kill us & # 34;

S e since the Austrian GP, ​​the world was all right . Pascal Wehrlein brought the smallest racing team in the field with his point win in Spielberg to 10th place in the constructors' classification. Since then, team boss Dave Ryan and the drivers have been hoping for normal races as possible. “I don't need any chaos,” Ryan had said before the start of the Brazilian GP.

He knew that a rain race would offer the direct opponent Sauber the golden chance. “They are better in the rain than we are because they have more downforce.” The water battle of Sao Paulo turned out to be an open-sighted battle for a long time.

Esteban Ocon had Felipe Nasr's field of vision most of the time. Once the gap even shrank to 1.2 seconds. Only when Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas interfered in the duel of the cellar children in the final phase, the train had left for Ocon.

Ocon disappointed despite the best race

The spindly Frenchman was anyway drove the best races of his short career. With his courageous drive in the rain he had just given in his business card as Max Verstappen at the top. “The race was good, but in the end there is a feeling of disappointment. When you're that close, you want your first points. ”

Ocon conjured his Manor through the floods with practically no flaws and at the end of the 19th lap survived a hairy moment with the accident of Kimi Raikkonen. “Esteban was really shocked after the race. He only saw Kimi at the last moment and could have hit him head-on. The race should never have been released at this point, ”said Ryan for his driver, who had already rushed to the airport.

The former McLaren man shared his pilot's disappointment, but remained fair. “Compliments to Sauber. You took the chance one hundred percent. We couldn't do more than Ocon showed. The car can no longer. ”

Manor was tenth up to the 30th lap

Secretly, Manor had hoped that the race would be stopped altogether after the Raikkonen accident. Nasr was in 7th place, but Ocon and Wehrlein were 9th and 10th. Including the 5-second penalty for Daniel Ricciardo, there would have been 3 points each for Sauber and Manor with half points.

'I told my drivers after the first restart that they had to stay behind the safety car with Ricciardo within 5 seconds of every lap,in the event that it is canceled again. Which is what happened. When the race started again, our chances continued to decline. We couldn't defend ourselves against the faster ones with our cars and the old tires, ”regretted Ryan.

Nevertheless, Manor doesn't want to give up. Ryan: “There is still a 21st race and thus another chance. Anything is possible in this sport. The race is only over with the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi. Even if it hardly rains there, we still have hope. Ericsson finished eleventh in a dry race in Mexico. ”

Ryan admits that the small team would be hit by the $ 15 million loss. “We'd rather have this money. But not having it doesn't mean the end. It won't kill us. ”