John Alfred Booth (born 18 December 1954 in

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

, England) is the former Director of Racing at

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso SpA (; ), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One constructor. It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate company Red Bull, the other being Red B ...

. He is the former team principal of the

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

Marussia Marussia Motors ( ) was a Russian sports car company founded in 2007. It was the first Russian company to produce a supercar. It designed, and manufactured prototypes of both the B1 and the B2 sport cars. Marussia was led by former motor racer Ni ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team. He was initially the team's sporting director, but took over the role of team principal from Alex Tai less than one month after the team's launch.

Motorsport career

Booth was a racing driver during the 1980s, with a family-run team, racing in

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

and British Formula 3. Named after the Anston Manor House where he lived, Booth created the

Manor Motorsport Manor Motorsport Ltd, currently trading as Manor Endurance Racing Ltd is a British motor racing company that was formed in 1990 by former single-seater champion John Booth. Manor has participated as a team in many motorsport disciplines since ...

team in 1990 when he sold the family butchers business. Over 20 years Manor's record of success includes some 171 race wins and 19 championship titles in series such as

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

Formula Renault Formula Renault are classes of formula racing popular in Europe and elsewhere. Regarded as an entry-level series to auto racing, motor racing, it was founded in 1971, and was a respected series where drivers can learn advanced racecraft before mov ...

and

Formula Three Euroseries The Formula 3 Euro Series was a European-based junior single seater formula for Formula Three chassis that was launched (in its current form) in 2003 as a merger of the French Formula Three Championship and German Formula Three Championship. The ...

. Among the drivers who have gone on to greater things having raced with Manor Motorsport are:

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One ...

Paul di Resta Paul di Resta (born 16 April 1986) is a British racing driver and broadcaster from Scotland, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Peugeot. Di Resta competed in Formula One between and . Born in Uphall and raised in Bathg ...

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British auto racing, racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been List of BTCC champions, BTCC Champion, in 2001 British Touring ...

Oliver Jarvis Oliver Richard Benjamin Jarvis (born 9 January 1984) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, 2023 European Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series an ...

and

Antônio Pizzonia Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior (born 11 September 1980) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series. Born in Manaus, he started his car racing career in the Formula Vauxhall Junior ...

Formula One

Manor Grand Prix/Virgin Racing/Marussia F1 (2009-2015)

On 12 June 2009 it was announced Manor's application to participate in the

2010 Formula One season The 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 64th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. Red Bull Racing won its maiden Constructors' Championship with a 1–2 finish in Brazil, while Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Driv ...

had been accepted - the original intention having been to race in GP2, but the entry list was full. Their F1 team was originally called

Manor Grand Prix Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, trading as Manor Racing MRT or Pertamina Manor Racing MRT, was a British Formula One racing team and constructor based in Banbury, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. The outfit competed from 2010 to 2016: the te ...

, but the name was later changed to

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a List of Formula One constructors#Team's ...

, with backing from

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding compa ...

and later still to the Marussia F1 Team, following Russian sports car manufacturer

acquiring a controlling interest in the team. Booth had said that the F3 team will continue to run, despite his focus shifting to the F1 team. However, Manor have pulled out of the Euroseries, to compete in the new-for-

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

. On 30 October 2015, media announced the resignation of both Booth and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Graeme Lowdon Graeme Paul Lowdon (born 23 April 1965) is a British businessman and entrepreneur. He served as chief executive officer of the Virgin and Marussia Formula One teams. Career Originally from Corbridge, Lowdon grew up in Stocksfield. He gained ...

from the team at the end of , citing differences with team owner

Stephen Fitzpatrick Stephen James Fitzpatrick (born 21 September 1977) is a Northern Irish businessman, founder of OVO Energy, Vertical Aerospace and former owner of the Manor Racing team. Early life and education Fitzpatrick was born in Belfast. He studied ...

. An official statement by any party has not been made. Afterwards, Booth and Lowdon announced they would form a team in the World Endurance Championship, also known as Manor Motorsport, with former Manor drivers

Will Stevens William Jonathan Richard Stevens (born 28 June 1991) is a British racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Jota Sport, Jota. Stevens competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing (motorsport), endurance ...

and

Tor Graves Tor Graves (born Torsak Sriachavanon, March 26, 1972) is a Thai racing driver who most recently competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobi ...

Scuderia Toro Rosso (2016-18)

In April 2016, it was announced that Booth had joined

Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso SpA (; ), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One constructor. It was one of two Formula One constructors owned by Austrian conglomerate company Red Bull, the other being Red Bul ...

as Director of Racing. He later confirmed his departure from the team in April 2018. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, John 1954 births Living people English motorsport people Formula One team owners Formula One team principals Sportspeople from Rotherham Scuderia Toro Rosso