Fry joins ex-McLaren team mates at Manor F1

LONDON (Reuters) – Formula One’s smallest team Manor Racing announced on Monday that Pat Fry was joining as an engineering consultant, bringing another former McLaren employee on board.

The move reunited three senior figures from McLaren’s past with former chief engineer Fry joining aerodynamics head Nikolas Tombazis and racing director Dave Ryan also at a team that is switching to Mercedes engines.

Manor said Fry, who moved from McLaren to Ferrari in 2010 before being shown the door in 2014, will provide engineering expertise as the team prepare for the season starting in Australia on March 20.

Tombazis and Fry were also colleagues at Ferrari before both left in the restructuring which led to Maurizio Arrivabene taking over as principal of the Italian team that provided Manor with engines last year.

Ryan, who spent 35 years at McLaren before leaving in 2009, was appointed racing director at Manor — a team with a tiny budget compared to his previous employer’s huge resources — last November.

“The aim is to bring performance to the car with effect from the Barcelona (pre-season) tests (next month), then translate that to the race track in Melbourne to ensure we make the strongest possible start to 2016,” Ryan said in a statement.

Manor, previously known as Marussia and before that Virgin Racing, failed to score a point last year and finished 10th and last overall.

They have yet to name a principal, with founder John Booth and sporting director Graeme Lowdon departing at the end of last year, or their 2016 driver lineup.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)