Fabio Leimer, the 2013 GP2 champion, will have his first run in an official Formula One session this weekend with Manor.
Leimer joined the team as a reserve driver last month and is set to drive Roberto Merhi’s car in tomorrow’s first practice session at the Hungaroring.
“On this most difficult of weekends for the team, I am very appreciative of their decision to continue with my planned FP1 sessionm” said Leimer.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity and I hope I can make a positive contribution to the engineering programme for the weekend.”
Leimer previously tested for Sauber at Yas Marina in 2011.
Manox (@marussi)
23rd July 2015, 15:23
Let him race The weekend against Stevens. Merhi is not doing that Great
Liam McShane (@)
23rd July 2015, 15:44
To be fair he has been doing better recently. He did get massively out paced in Silverstone though right until Stevens crashed.
KwekuQ (@kwekuq)
23rd July 2015, 15:48
I agree. Merhi should consider going back to school and pursuing a career in school bus driving…
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
23rd July 2015, 16:17
Not that great compared to expectations (I expected Merhi to crush Stevens in intra-team based on their FR3.5 records) but Merhi’s also giving up quite a bit of weight and has only just come to grips with the car.
I don’t think Merhi will keep the seat all year, but for him to have even made it to F1 given that he was mulling over retirement a year ago is still amazing.
Andy (@andybantam)
23rd July 2015, 19:05
Was Methil considering retirement? I didn’t realise that.
David (@wushumr2)
24th July 2015, 2:54
Seriously? Considering retirement and overweight to boot? Again, I am absolutely amazed that more qualified people aren’t lining up for the Manor seat. Is it that their sponsors don’t want to be associated with the worst team currently in F1? Caterham definitely had more sponsors even when they were behind Manor in the CC.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th July 2015, 9:05
Merhi’s lucky he’s racing at all after his brainless crash at the end of the Renault 3.5 race in Austria. But here he is, supposedly competing at a higher level, one which claims to be redoubling efforts to improve safety, and that sort of behaviour is perfectly acceptable…
MattDS (@mattds)
24th July 2015, 9:15
@bullfrog I accept that Merhi is to blame for causing a crash, but the bashing as a result of it is a bit in excess. How he’s “lucky to be racing”? Merhi has had a lengthy racing career already and he’s never been an erratic or dangerous driver. Yes, he has made an error two weeks ago but it’s the first time I’ve seen him do such a thing – and I’ve seen many races of his in various categories.
No, he’s not “lucky to be racing at all”. And no, “that sort of behaviour” is NOT perfectly acceptable, which is why he has had a punishment in the series he committed an error in.
People should really stop overreacting about this. He’s made the error, he got punished, he’ll learn from it, and that’s that.
Blasbri
25th July 2015, 17:35
Merhi has a massively better record than Stevens in their careers prior to F1. He shouldn’t have accepted a seat where he wouldn’t be able to show his talent because his team-mate is the guy who brings the megabucks. Had Manor a bit more coverage, their behavour at the Spanish GP -where Merhi was ordered to let Stevens pass- would have granted him some problems with the FIA and his “bringing the sport into disrepute” article…
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
23rd July 2015, 19:06
I hope we’ll be seeing him in a race soon.
Andy (@andybantam)
23rd July 2015, 21:02
It’s good to see that Manor’s development programme still remains in their DNA.