Banbury, Oxfordshire - Indonesian Rio Haryanto will stay with Manor as a reserve driver after being dropped from the race seat, the Formula One team said on Thursday.
"Rio will be available to deputise should either race driver be unable to take part in an event," the team said. "He will also be immersed in engineering meetings and PR activities as the team continues its support for his racing ambitions."
The decision came a day after the team announced that Frenchman Esteban Ocon was taking Haryanto's place from this month's Belgian Grand Prix due to contractual issues.
Ocon is backed by both Mercedes and Renault, where he was a reserve F1 driver, and will partner German rookie Pascal Wehrlein at Mercedes-powered Manor. He has been racing for Mercedes in the German Touring Car series while also carrying out a Formula One reserve role for Renault.
The highly-rated youngster won the FIA F3 championship in 2014 and the GP3 series last year.
"He is clearly one of the rising stars of F1," Ryan said.
Ocon said he was thrilled to be given his chance to debut at Spa, which almost amounted to a home race for him, and thanked Mercedes and Renault for making it happen.
"I've visited Manor already for my seat fit and to meet with the wider team, so we'll be ready to hit the ground running after the summer break," he added.
Contractual obligations
Manor said Haryanto, who is backed by Indonesian state oil company Pertamina but needed to raise substantial sums to retain his seat, had accepted an offer to stay as a reserve for the rest of the season.
"Manor has taken the decision to terminate Rio Haryanto's race contract after he was unable to meet his contractual obligations," the team said.
Haryanto, who has been backed by Indonesia's state-owned oil company Pertamina, became Indonesia's first Formula One driver when he made his race debut with Mercedes-powered Manor at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March. He started 12 races without scoring a point.
However, his contract depended on raising substantial further funding.
Manor racing director Dave Ryan said: "Some time ago his management indicated that they were experiencing difficulties honouring the obligations of that contract beyond July's Hungarian Grand Prix.
"Rio's team have worked tirelessly to try to resolve that situation with his Indonesian backers and we have supported those efforts as much as possible, including allowing Rio to race in Germany.
"Unfortunately we reached a point where, in the best interests of the team, we were forced to explore other options for the remainder of the season."
Official reserve
Manor, the smallest Formula One team but 10th of 11 in the current championship standings, signed Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi of the United States as its official reserve in March.
However, he said earlier in August he had turned down an offer to race the rest of the season with them due to his IndyCar commitments.
"My management and I are in constant communications with Manor and we knew there might be an opportunity to race for the last half of the 2016 season," he said. "We gave it careful thought but declined the race seat due to my IndyCar contract.
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