MOTOR racing team manager and engineer Anthony Shaw, from Hatherden, will be taking an extra-keen interest in the exciting rounds of Formula One this year.

The 28-year-old year-old is manager of the Manor Motorsport Formula Renault team which provided the winning base for Kimi Raikkonen to leapfrog straight into Formula 1 with Sauber, by-passing Formula 3 and Formula 3000 to become the most inexperienced racing driver in history to be given a chance in F1.

The pair spent last season together with the Sheffield based Manor outfit, regular producers of champions, with the 21-year-old Finn winning seven out of 10 races to become UK Formula Renault champion, as well as proving unbeatable in the two European championship rounds he contested.

Simon North, manager of the UK Renault championship, said Shaw's results in 2000 had been exemplary, especially as he had had to cope with extra responsibilities with owner John Booth concentrating on Manor's Formula 300 team.

"He must have got a lot of satisfaction from Kimi's performance," he added.

Anthony Shaw has links with two other young contenders in Formula 1. He worked alongside Arrows driver Pedro de la Rosa who won the UK Formula Renault title in 1992, driving for the Chatham based Minister International team and Manor's 1999 UK Formula Renault champion, Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia who has tested for the Benetton F1 team.

Other winning drivers who have received the Manor Motorsport boost are Guy Smith, Mario Haberfield, Mark Hynes and Alulzio Coelho, a team mate of Jensen Button's in Formula 3 in 1999.

"I have often been asked who is the best," Anthony commented.

"They have all been extremely good and it's really impossible to pick anyone out. All our championship winners have had drives with Williams Grand Prix who have been impressed with them all.

"Manor is a hard-working team, which builds up good relationships with its drivers."

Motor racing is in his blood - his father, Tony Shaw was a winner on circuit, campaigning a Jaguar E type, a 3 litre Capri and a Camaro in the sixties and seventies.

To follow Manor Motorsport in 2001 click on www.manormotorsport.com.