Rio Haryanto is disappointed that his contract is still undecided a week into the summer break, as securing the necessary funding is proving to be a challenge.

At the beginning of the season, Rio’s contract was signed with Manor for him to race at all venues on this years calendar. However funding that secured him this opportunity, ran out after the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

Haryanto was allowed to race in Germany as his management team gave Manor racing sufficient assurances around future funding. However the summer shutdown is already a week old, and there is still no confirmation regarding his future.

Haryanto confirms his management team are tirelessly working to secure the required funding, as frustrations for the Indonesian driver start to kick in.

“I am a bit disappointed because it is not easy to still have doubt over what will happen in the future,” Haryanto said.

“Sometimes you are not always going to have good days and sometimes you have bad days, it is what it is. I believe in my management they are working very hard to secure the seat for me for the whole season. 
“My aim was to always finish the whole season and given the support of the fans at home in Indonesia they are have helped me a lot but when it comes to financial I don’t think they could have done much there. I will be disappointed if I can’t come back.”

There are certainly no shortage of drivers linked to the ‘potential’ vacant seat at Manor Racing. During the German Grand Prix weekend there were the stories surrounding Stoffel Vandoorne being the favourite should Rio not secure his place. Since then you can throw Esteban Ocon into the hat, possibly Pierre Gasly, along with American driver Alexander Rossi for the drive.

Favourite now for the drive may indeed be Esteban Ocon. Ocon is aligned to the Mercedes team, where this year he has been loaned out to the struggling Renault team as a reserve driver.

Mercedes head Toto Wolff recently sang the youngsters praises, and urged other teams on the grid to give him an opportunity to race.

“Esteban has an impeccable personality — he really is a nice and intelligent young man. And his performance in the car is extraordinary,” the 44-year-old said told French broadcaster Canal Plus

“He did two sensational test days with us at Silverstone and we saw that he did the same time as Magnussen in Friday free practice, so he is someone who has a big future.

“I hope that my colleagues realise all of this, otherwise it will be us who will be taking him back!”

It remains to be seen how much of a deciding factor Mercedes will be, in deciding the drivers for the Mercedes powered Manor team.