Manor Formula 1 team will make it to Australian Grand Prix

Manor has confirmed that its Formula 1 car is ready to race at the Australian Grand Prix.

The British-based outfit - revived from the defunct Marussia team - said the final hurdles have been overcome and its 2015 challenger is being finalised for the flight to Melbourne later this week.

Sporting director Graeme Lowdon said: "At certain times over the last six months it was not completely clear we would get to this point.

"I'm very excited to announce that thanks to a lot of hard work from an awful lot of people we are ready to go racing again.

"The last few months have been a rollercoaster - and I want to say particular thanks to the fans."

Manor will start the season with an interim car, modified to fulfil the 2015 regulations, before a bespoke design is introduced later in the campaign.

The team has confirmed that energy boss Stephen Fitzpatrick is the investor behind the effort, with former Sainsbury's CEO Justin King appointed as interim team chairman.

Lowdon admitted that final crash tests still had to be passed later this week.

"Crash tests are ongoing - we block-booked some space at the laboratory to do the crash test this week, so I think the preparation day is today, and then tests will start," he explained.

"There are only a very small number of tests to be done, a push off and an impact test. We will just have to see how those tests progress.

"The timescale to prepare the car has been incredibly short, but there is a bit of time capacity in there so hopefully things will go well this year.

"The car is being prepared in Dinnington, the overall car is on schedule and main freight dispatch is Friday and we will be sending bits right up until the last minute."

Will Stevens will drive one of the Manor entries in 2015, with the second driver yet to be announced.

Downforce usually comes with the compromise of drag, however, as the leading edge slot on the RB11 now forms the upper louvre, we must also consider that it's also designed to reduce drag. On the right is what I normally expect to see as the pressure gradients meet. A tightly wound vortex is shed from the the juncture between the mainplane/top flap and the endplate, with the louvres used to control how the vortex rolls up. This is the compromise between downforce and drag and why we see the teams change the louvres, slots etc dependent on the circuit they're at, the angle of attack and/or design of the mainplane/top flap.

From images I saw on Saturday (illustrated above, left,) it would appear as speed builds the way the vortex rolls has changed, with a much less tightly wound vortex present. With the airflow becoming destructive to both the upper and lower surfaces of the mainplane/top flap, causing separation. This may give it the potential to stall the outer sections of the mainplane and top flap, reducing drag and increasing top speed, in much the same way we saw teams use the F-Duct and DRD. You may question how this helps at the wing tip when previously we have seen team 'stall' their wings from a more central point, but we must remember the exhaust plume now also plays its own role in the airflow structures at hand.