Abhorrent Austin

Manor Mercedes traveled to the United States in hopes of gaining some ground on sixth place in the World Constructors Championship. Alas, that was not meant to be.

Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado had rough qualifying sessions, qualifying 13th and 14th, respectively. The two fell quickly and had quiet races, finishing 14th and 15th.

Team principal macus16 had little to comment, calling the weekend “one of the most boring, average weekends for [us]. It was just a day out with nothing more.”

Next week, the Model F1 World Championship heads to Yas Marina for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Stadium Super Shenanigans

During the weekend, the Model Stadium Super Trucks paid Circuit of the Americas a visit for its 2016 schedule. To join the fun, founder Robby Gordon invited Maldonado and Massa to run the round in trucks provided by SST. With Massa in the Speed Energy truck and Maldonado in a PDVSA one, the two ran the Saturday event shortly after MF1 qualifying had concluded on Saturday.

Maldonado and Massa started 6th and 7th, respectively, and were able to survive a mostly wreck-filled affair, one of which most notably featured Maldonado applying too much acceleration while jumping, causing his truck to roll. Massa would finish 4th and Maldonado 8th.

As the two were tired after the MF1 race, they did not run the second SST race, instead relinquishing their rides to Manor third driver Sergey Sirotkin (taking over Massa’s truck) and Model NASCAR driver John Wes Townley. Townley eventually rolled Maldonado’s truck entering turn 1, but was able to finish in 10th. Meanwhile, Sirotkin ran a solid race and finished 3rd.

To thank the team (and the SST) for giving him a chance, Townley’s sponsor Zaxby’s (owned by father Tony) decided to treat the Manor garage to a fried chicken party.