Manor confirms Merhi for 2015 F1 season, names developmental driver

As revealed by Motorsport.com earlier, the Spanish driver will partner Will Stevens in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, where the team will compete with an updated version of last year's cars powered by 2014 Ferrari engines.

Merhi, 23, made his Formula One debut in last year's Italian Grand Prix, driving for the Caterham team in opening practice.

Manor said Merhi will race alongside Stevens "in the opening rounds of the 2015 season."

I am incredibly excited to be making my Formula 1 race debut with Manor Marussia F1 Team ... It is a big responsibility but I feel ready to make this step in my career

Roberto Merhi

He also drove in FP1 in Japan and Russia, and expected to land a race seat in Abu Dhabi before it was handed to Stevens instead.

Merhi announced last week that he would compete in the Formula Renault 3.5 series with Pons Racing this season.

John Booth/Merhi comment

John Booth, Team Principal, commented: "It is fantastic to welcome Roberto and Jordan to the team. Not only are they very talented young drivers with exciting futures ahead of them, they have also been 'graduates' of Manor Motorsport in the junior formulae, which is obviously very rewarding for us, given that the development of young talent is an important part of our philosophy."

Roberto commented: "I am incredibly excited to be making my Formula 1 debut with Manor Marussia F1 Team in Melbourne this weekend. It is a big responsibility but I feel ready to make this step in my career and to show that I can make an important contribution to developing a team."

Developmental driver also announced

Also announced today is the team's new development driver, Jordan King.

The 21-year-old Briton, who will compete in the 2015 GP2 Series, will combine his regular racing role with test duties for Manor in order to begin the steady progression towards his longer-term ambition of a Formula 1 race seat.

Jordan King is the son of Justin King, who was recently confirmed as the team's interim chairman as well as an advisor.

Jordan commented: "I am obviously over the moon to be joining Manor Marussia F1 Team as a development driver. This is such an exciting project, full of great people and with a real chance of success. This is another great step closer to my ultimate goal of racing in Formula 1."

Nick DeGroot contributed to this story