Merhi still not ruling out F1 return

Roberto Merhi will complete the revival of the former Manor team in the world endurance championship this year.

With founders John Booth and Graeme Lowdon having left the F1 team that still bears the Manor name at the end of last year, 2015 driver Will Stevens was signed up to join them with a new entry in the LMP2 prototype category this season.

And the British driver will be joined at the team - whose Twitter handle is ’RealManor’ - by his former teammate Merhi, it was announced on Wednesday.

"Actually the announcement caught me by surprise," the Spaniard told El Confidencial newspaper. "I was not expecting it this week.

"I picked up my phone as I woke up and was met with all the hype of the announcement," he laughed.

Merhi is disappointed to be leaving formula one, but said "It was very difficult to stay without sponsorship, even thought there were possibilities to be a third driver.

"Manor is a team I know very well from F3 and F1 and I liked their offer to get into this (sports cars) discipline so let’s see what can happen in the future," he added.

"The objective is to keep fit, and it is a good championship to move to the LMP1 category in the future or, who knows, go back to formula one," said Merhi.