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 Marussia, the smallest team in the sport, went into administration
at the end of last season and survived only after a late rescue deal
was put together. They have used Ferrari engines for the past two
years.
The new partnership comes amid a general shakeup of the engine
landscape, with Renault set to buy Mercedes-powered Lotus and Red
Bull's two teams negotiating with Ferrari after breaking from
Renault.
Champions Mercedes, whose engine is the most competitive in the
sport, said the deal with Manor was a multi-year one and the units
provided would be 'current year'.
"This new agreement should enable us to keep our supply roster at
three customer teams for 2016, which is our ideal level in terms of
technical and logistical capacity," said Mercedes High Performance
Powertrains director Andy Cowell.
"We will be targeting gains in both performance and reliability for
the 2016 Power Unit and look forward to delivering those to our new
customers at Manor Marussia F1 Team."
Mercedes also provide engines to Force India and former champions
Williams as well as the works team of Lewis Hamilton and Nico
Rosberg but have baulked at supplying arch-rivals Red Bull.
Marussia principal John Booth said his team would resume a previous
technical partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering for the
supply of transmission and suspension components.
"Combined with Mercedes-Benz Power Units, we are very excited about
the strength of our new powertrain package and what it means for the
long-term future of our team," he said.
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Marussia have scored no points this season, after taking two last
year with the late French driver Jules Bianchi in Monaco. Their
drivers this season have been Britain's Will Stevens, American
Alexander Rossi and Spain's Roberto Merhi.
The 2014 points secured ninth place in the championship, ahead of
Sauber and now-defunct Caterham, and prize money that has been
crucial to the team's survival.
"Together with the potential we are seeing with our 2016 car in the
wind tunnel, the Mercedes-Benz Power Unit will assist our return to
aggressive performance development with effect from next season,"
said Booth.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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