Indonesian legend Rio Haryanto will not return to Formula 1 in 2017… according to his mum.
Haryanto became the first ever Indonesian Formula 1 driver in 2016 when he raced for Manor, but lost his seat to Esteban Ocon halfway through the year when he ran out of money. He stayed on as third driver for Manor with the hope of returning to a race seat at some point.
That’s not going to happen now though, so F1 fans across the world can get away from the edge of their seats.
Usually it’s the drivers themselves that confirm this or a carefully worded press release from a manager or a team, but in this case it seems that Rio’s mum has said that he’s not allowed out to play next year. Instead he’ll go and work with his dad, who owns a stationery company.
However, Haryanto’s manager reckons there’s still hope for a place in F1 next year, but the loss of his main sponsor, Pertamina, won’t help.
Whatever happens, Haryanto did an ok job during his few races and he holds the honour of winning the first ever official F1.com ‘Driver of the Day’ vote, and no one can take that away from him. Apart from F1.com. Who did.