Three guys, one car is a possibility for Manor next year, according to Autoweek. Drivers Alexander Rossi, Rio Haryanto and Will Stevens all bring significant sponsorship deals to the table, so Manor is reportedly considering letting each have a go in their home region to the tune of $5 million each.
With the 21-race calendar, each driver could have seven races out of the season. Per Autoweek, Rossi’s chunk of the schedule would focus on North and South America. British fan favorite Will Stevens would concentrate mainly on the European rounds. Lastly, as Haryanto’s ride is paid for by Indonesia, in what is surely a prudent use of government funds in a country with 65 million people living in poverty, he would contest the first few rounds of the season and re-appear for the remaining races in Asia.
According to Formula One’s breakdown of driver-related rules, Article 26.1a of the FIA Sporting Regulations actually allows teams to use up to four drivers in a season. Manor’s other car has one full-time driver in Pascal Weirlein, who came as a sort of package deal with the Mercedes power unit.
Autoweek cites Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat as the source of the driver threesome rumor, so as I don’t know any polite words in Finnish, I’ll take their word for it.
If this comes to pass, Manor will have four drivers’ money in addition to Mercedes power, a new team logo that looks suspiciously like two Whataburger roofs and technical help from Williams. Hopefully, this could finally translate into a better season for the backmarker team.
Either way, it may be interesting to see if this driver trio rumor comes to fruition. Who’s the fastest? Well, they may all be driving the same car.
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