The FIA has reimbursed the now-defunct Manor Racing team's entry fee for the 2017 Formula One season as "a gesture of goodwill".
Manor paid in excess of £500,000 last November in anticipation of the current campaign, but the team collapsed on the eve of the season and did not compete. The team had dropped behind Sauber in heartbreaking fashion at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season, which robbed it of crucial performance-related prize money needed to stay on the grid.
Despite formally entering the process of administration, hopes of a return continued through winter testing until owner Stephen Fitzpatrick withdrew the team's entry, leading to an auction of various bits of kit including the windtunnel model of its 2017 car.