Graeme Lowdon says the Manor team rebuild is now in full flow and feels the rate of improvement is moving along faster than he anticipated.

After pulling the Formula 1 squad from the edge of extinction the Manor president and sporting director says his team is now in a situation where it can develop itself rather than focusing on survival.

The British team signalled its intentions by announcing technical and engineering appointments in recent weeks, including former Mercedes and Renault team principal Rob Bell, who acts as a technical consultant.

As well as Bell, Manor has also brought in Luca Furbatto as Head of Design and Gianluca Pisanello as Chief Engineer. The team has also bolstered its driver ranks with former GP2 champion Fabio Leimer signed as a reserve driver and current GP2 racer Jordan King named as a development driver for the remainder of the season.

Lowdon says Manor's start to 2015 was far from ideal, when they failed to turn a wheel at the season opener in Australia, but he is confident the team is making strong progress approaching the midpoint of the season.

"We're in a position where we're rebuilding the team," Lowdon said. "The start of this season for us has obviously been very unusual and it's not the sort of start anybody would plan by design but it's what we've had to deal with.

"In terms of the technical structure of the team, we were lucky enough to have a number of people rejoin the team really very quickly, who had been with us in the past. I think we had a very efficient and effective technical team who were on a path to deliver a very neat car and package for 2015."

Lowdon also says balancing the day-to-day challenges of lifting a team off the ground with a long-term rebuilding strategy is a difficult test but says the experienced personnel added to the team are making a massive difference.

"Obviously our progress was interrupted and we're now in a phase that is quite unusual - having to rebuild things whilst also looking at the bigger picture and the bigger strategy," he explained. "We don't want to get too focused on the day-to-day problems.

"With Bob coming on board, a very, very experiences guy with a focus very much on the big picture, strategy going forward. Luca [Furbatto] is a guy with a huge amount of experience, so that's going to strengthen the design side of the business and Gianluca [Pisanello] as well.

"We're in a very rapid period of rebuilding. We've just got to get this period done as quickly as we possibly can."

Manor is yet to confirm when reserve driver Leimer will be handed opportunities to drive in FP1 sessions but Lowdon is delighted to welcome the Swiss to the team and is sure his chances will come.

"I'm very, very happy to have him on board," Lowdon said. "I think he's shown in junior formulae that he's got the right credentials to be here in Formula One and again, it's just part of building the team back up to the strength we want it to be."