Manor to stick with longer nose concept

The nose on the Banbury-based team's MRT05 is the longest of the designs currently revealed, and will have been simpler to conceive than the short noses that can be expensive to make strong enough to pass F1's mandatory crash tests.

With Manor open that it does not have the development budget of other teams, it has to be more selective about what parts of the car it spends money on improving.

And although there are gains to be had from having a short nose, it thinks it could get a bigger impact tweaking other areas of the car.

When asked by Motorsport.com whether a short nose would be a step too far in cost terms, Dave Ryan said: "No, it's probably not a step too far in terms of.... I'll rephrase it. It's a bigger job.

"So, from our perspective, it didn't seem to be too much different from aero performance. So, we stuck with what we have and we developed that long concept."

New parts coming

Ryan has made it clear, however, that there is an update plan in place for the team and new parts will be coming on tap when they are ready.

"Absolutely. Just because we are a small team, we won't just build a new car and stop. It's the opposite. This is a new era for us.

"We've got a new car. We have development programme. We've got some great people, as I've said, back in the factory.

"Every single person in the factory is so full of enthusiasm and optimism. The work they are putting in is phenomenal," he added.

"But the thing we have to do is to spend that money properly. If we do development, we have got to be sure that the development is beneficial.

"So, we can't afford to throw things in the cars just to try things out. We need a really thorough and planned approach and that's what we will be doing.

"We do have a programme for changes throughout the year. But as long as we validate them properly, they will get on the car. If they don't go through that phase, we won't put them on the car.

"So in terms of are we going to develop the car? Absolutely."