Will Stevens expecting belated Manor race debut at Chinese GP
Manor have denied claims they can't run both cars simultaneously
Monday 13 April 2015 14:20, UK
Will Stevens is confident his Chinese GP weekend will “run smoothly” as Manor bid to race both their cars for the first time this season.
Stevens arrives at the third event of 2015 still awaiting even his first qualifying session for his new team with neither Manor car running in Australia and then the Briton’s beset by terminal fuel system problems on Saturday in Malaysia.
Although falling foul of the 107% rule in Sepang qualifying, team-mate Roberto Merhi was able to complete the race and register the revived team’s first finish, albeit three laps down, and Stevens is now expecting to get his season up and running in Shanghai.
“Coming here another two weeks on, we’re in a completely different position again from what we were last time,” Stevens told Sky Sports News HQ.
“This weekend should run smoothly. We hope for a lot more laps than in Malaysia and the same improvement that we had from Australia to Malaysia. We’re in a much better position.”
Although Stevens did complete 26 laps during the three practice sessions at Sepang, the Manor cars never appeared on track together – prompting conspiracy theories that the team were unable to run two cars on track simultaneously.
Manor have vehemently denied such suggestions, however, and Stevens says their lack of winter running means they are having to take things steadily.
“The others had all pre-season testing and you look at those guys and they ran one car at a time there,” he said. “There’s everything we have to go through and certain things we’ve got to do to make sure the car is working properly before we start going out and doing too many laps because that’s when issues occur.
“We need to take it slowly for the first weekend, but we’re in a much better position and should do a lot more laps [in China].”
