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Welcome to A1GPOnline, the 2008-09 Edition!
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Could the IRL race at Surfers Paradise be dead in the water? |
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 IndyCar Series teams are not thrilled with the financial prospect of racing in Australia on Oct. 26. Various team officials say they still don't know how much money they will receive for making the trip but have been told it will be between $10,000 and $30,000 per car. That's not enough, they say.
They estimate it will cost $100,000 per car (assuming that no crash damage occurs in the race), and teams will only be able to bring a skeleton crew, since they will receive just 15 airline tickets--and those are only from Los Angeles, meaning that they would have to pay their own way to reach L.A.
The Indy Racing League officially added the former Champ Car World Series race to its schedule in July, but the event has always been scheduled as a non-points-paying race to cap the season on Oct. 26.
Article by Autoweek
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A1 Team Australia reveal livery |
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 Team Australia have today revealed the livery to be used for their entry into the 2008-09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Powered by Ferrari.
The Car named Jackaroo, after a competion by the team during season 3, will again feature a predominatly yellow and green livery, the national sporting colours of the Aussies.
A1 Team Australia will hit the track for the first time with the new car at the first multi-car test session at Donington Park on the 9th and 11th September before the first race of the season at the Circuit Park Zandvoort in The Netherlands.
Article by Alex Blakeley
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A1GPOnline EXCLUSIVE : Valentino Rossi - Will he or Won't he? |
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 Italian MotoGP sensation Valentino Rossi has had rumours flying around suggesting he is set to race for A1 Team Italy during the new A1GP Season beginning at Zandvoort in October. But will he or not?
There are a number of factors that Rossi will surely consider before making his competitive debut in single seaters.
Firstly can Yamaha spare the ace rider from there 2009 MotoGP preperations throughout the winter. Valentino is a key rider for the team and series and he would be missed greatly for his exceptional input he would have on the teams new bike for 2009.
Also, would he want to risk his reputation - being a world class MotoGP rider is no means a gaurantee that he will be successful in A1GP. There has only been one person to ever win World Championships on both 2 and 4 wheels and that is former A1 Team Great Britain Boss John Surtees.
The question still remains, will he join the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and represent his nation?
Personally I think he will make the switch for a limited number of races. Why? Because for a long time now we have known he was considering a switch to Formula 1 - he has tested for Ferrari on numerous occasions - and with Ferrari now on board with A1GP, now would be a perfect opportunity for racing on 4 wheels with all the support he needs.
Article by Alex Blakeley
Dont forget to keep checking A1GPOnline.com for more as this story develops!
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Sky Sports and FIVE renew rights to A1GP Coverage in GBR |
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 Team GBR fans will continue to be able to watch all the A1GP action live for the next three seasons after Sky Sports and Channel 5 renewed the rights to broadcast the series.
Sky who have been on board with the series since day 1 will continue showing all qualifying and races with Channel 5 showing an extensive highlights package of each event within a week of the event during their late night motorsport broadcasts.
Katie Clemets - Team Principle of A1 Team Great Britain said of the deal; “Ahead of such an exciting season, it is fantastic news that A1GP has confirmed that television broadcasts will continue on both Sky Sports and Five.” This will enable Great Britain to watch their national team in action in a season in which we are determined to take the championship.”
With the new generation of A1GP Cars, Powered by Ferrari, the 2008-09 A1GP Season begins in The Netherlands at the iconic Circuit Park Zandvoort.
Article by Alex Blakeley
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Chengdu revealed as host venue of Chinese round |
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A1GP have today revealed that the Chengdu International Circuit in China will stage round 2 of the 2008/09 A1GP Season.
Scheduled for 7-9 November 2009, Chengdu has moved into the slot of the Indonesian Street Circuit event in Jakarta, which has been rescheduled for the 6-8 February 2008. This change has been made to use of the better weather during November than in December when the Chinese round of A1GP's 4th season was scheduled for.
Chengdu situated in the south-west of the country around 1,518 kilometres (943 miles) from Beijing and 1,651 kilometres (1,026 miles) from Shanghai. The city of Chengdu is the 5th most populated city in China.
The 3.367 kilometres (2.019 miles) long circuit features 14 turns and runs in a clockwise direction.
All proceeds of the event will go towards helping all those affected by the recent devestating earthquake that hit the region back in May.
Article by Alex Blakeley
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New Ferrari Car to smash A1GP lap records across the globe |
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 Expect lap records across the A1GP calendar to be broken this season, because it looks like the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car is going to be rather fast.
Testing this week has indicated that the new racer is already more than two seconds per lap quicker than its predecessor, and there is likely to be more speed to come.
Extensive running was carried out on the first ‘production-specification’ version of the car at Silverstone’s International layout this week, with this final design derived following thousands of laps testing and honing the yellow prototype model. This week was the first time the new race car has run on a circuit extensively lapped by the first generation of A1GP racer. Lap times were roughly two seconds per lap quicker than the best ever produced by the previous generation of car at the same venue, even at this relatively early stage of the car's development.
It is likely to mean that as A1GP travels the world for its fourth season, lap record after lap record will go to a new owner.
That previous best effort at Silverstone, set by A1 Team Germany’s Christian Vietoris, was in the original car’s third year of development, after the teams and drivers had run it in anger at race track across the world for two seasons. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that even more speed will be found in the new car when teams and drivers start to extract the most out of its potential.
Jonny Kane and Danny Watts, who also extensively tested the first generation of car, were the drivers behind the wheel this week. Watts predicts could be as much as five seconds per lap quicker when the teams run it in anger.
“If it is a two seconds lap quicker now, with the development that the teams will put it under in the heat of battle, I’d say there is another two to three seconds to be found,” Watts told A1GP.com. “So I’d say it could be about four to five seconds per lap quicker – and that’s even being realistic rather than just saying any number.”
The new car is bigger and more powerful, with the new Ferrari V8 engine outputting in more than 600bhp.
“The test was very encouraging and both test drivers gave very useful feedback,” said A1GP’s general manager for technical and operations, John Wickham. “The brakes have much, much better performance, the engine is stronger, and it is more powerful and has more torque. We have obviously moved forward with this car.”
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A1GP delays start of season 4 |
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A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has moved A1GP Mugello, Italy from the opening round of the 2008/09 championship following a delay in the build schedule of the new chassis. The first time all the nations will be seen in action will now be on the 4 – 5 October at A1GP Zandvoort, Netherlands.
The series set itself a tight schedule with less than 11 months to design, build and test the new car and make sure all the teams received identical machinery. Any delays in the schedule were always going to impact on the ability to deliver to all the teams. “It was always going to be an optimistic programme but we were confident we could achieve it. This in no way reflects on the work undertaken by the technical team and our partners, as it was due to circumstances beyond their control. I also want to thank all our technical partners for their support during our intensive testing programme, and especially Ferrari for the supply of engines,” said A1GP Chief Executive Officer, Pete da Silva.
“We now have to concentrate on what we have ahead of us rather than behind. We still have some great announcements to make. In the near future we shall be able to announce our full race calendar, as well as some deals that will enhance the overall package we are presenting to our fans for Season Four,” said da Silva.
We will of course bring to you the new revised A1GP 2008/09 Schedule as soon as we know any more about it.
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New Nation to enter A1GP fold? |
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 A1GPOnline are lead to believe that at least one new nation is set to be revealed by A1GP to compete in the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 'Powered by Ferrari'
The as yet unknown nation is, we believe to be in between current competing A1GP Teams Portugal and South Africa in the alphabetical order.
We have also spotted in between Malaysia and Mexico the flag of what could be another new nation - Monaco.
However this second flag may of course just be the Indonesian flag. Even if it is Monaco or Indonesia it means that A1GP are NOT placing plags in their strict alphabetical order as usual.
Article by Alex Blakeley
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NEW but hidden rule within the Sporting Regulations |
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This season, as always, the fastest A1GP laps will be watched by millions around the world. But for the first time, the technical secrets behind them will be published.
The 2008/09 sporting regulations were confirmed last week, with the main highlights being a revised points system and the news that the action in the shorter Sprint race will now include a mandatory pit stop. There will also be more pressurised qualifying sessions thanks to less time to set the all important fast times for grid positions, and more time for rookie drivers on a Friday morning.
However, hidden in the regulations, there is another intriguing new rule, which could have an extremely significant affect on the closeness and the quality of this season’s racing – because now, all teams will get some crucial information about the fastest car on the track, and why it is the fastest.
How will this be done? Measurements from sensors placed all around A1GP cars are constantly recording data such as speed, throttle angle and brake pedal pressure. From this season, those measurements taken during the fastest lap recorded in each session will be published for the rest of the pit lane to see. With such information, teams struggling for pace during practice will have a better chance of understanding why they are slower, and hopefully closing that time gap to the front-running car.
The exact wording of the new rule is as follows: “Article 123: After each Practice session and Qualifying, A1GP will make available to all Competitors data showing information relating to the speed, throttle angle, brake application and steering angle of the Fastest Lap achieved overall in each Practice session and in Qualifying.”
All cars are identical, but there are still many different minor adjustments teams can make with that same equipment. A1GP races are decided by driver skill, and how that driver races with the car set-up to his or her liking (a car’s set-up is the way the myriad of different settings are used to maximize its capabilities on a given circuit in given conditions.) This new rule means some basic information on the fastest laps of the weekend will be available to all competitors for the first time – and not just the teams that recorded them. This is new ground for an international motor racing series.
While many spectators and fans are unlikely to be interested in trawling through the various graphs and the numbers themselves, they should be happy if the drivers and engineers of the teams they support do. This could potentially mean they are closer to the pace.
Presently, team fraternisation is one of the most hotly-debated issues in A1GP. Every nation is racing for itself, but some choose to work alongside each other in the pit lane, sharing technical data. By sharing information such as throttle position, downforce levels and the data readings, a driver could potentially learn from another’s telemetry where they could, for example, improve at a particular corner. However, the flipside to that is a team also gives away its own information to a rival nation.
While the data given by A1GP after every session will not be as exhaustive as the telemetry readings from their own cars, it could potentially detail that piece of crucial information a team needs. The grid for the Feature race in Zhuhai last season was just 1.4 seconds from the front to the back. What price on a grid with an even smaller gap this season?
Ultimately, what it will mean is that the emphasis on driver ability will be more than ever before.
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Fans get to see new Netherlands car |
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 A1 Team Netherlands fans got another chance to see the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car this weekend, at the annual Bavaria City Racing Festival around the streets of Rotterdam.
The annual festival event contains demonstrations from all forms of motorsports, and the estimated 500,000 fans went crazy when catching their first glimpses of the A1 Team Netherlands car, complete with 600bhp Ferrari V8 engine.
Twenty-two-year old Japan F3 racer Carlo van Dam was given the task of piloting the car on home soil, which was run in a bright orange livery reminiscent of the design that was used by the team in the first two seasons of A1GP.
The orange design is not going to be the final livery however, with the 2008/09 paint-scheme expected to be revealed by the end of this month, along with details of the all-important driver line-up.
“It was great to drive in front of a Dutch audience again in the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car,” said van Dam.
“It is obvious the people from Ferrari and A1GP have done a tremendous job. When I heard the engine sound and felt the vibes of its engine it made my skin crawl. I couldn’t show the full potential of the new car around the tight streets but it is obvious it is huge.”
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Netherlands Ferrari Car gets first run |
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In front of packed grandstands the A1 Team Netherlands car made its maiden run at Bavaria City Racing in Rotterdam. Carlo van Dam had the honors to drive the orange A1 GP Powered by Ferrari car in his hometown.
After a final shakedown at the Silverstone circuit the car arrived in Rotterdam on Friday, where it was on display at the RaceSalon first. Sunday afternoon Carlo van Dam took place behind the wheel of the Netherlands car, the first production car, to entertain the crowds lining the street circuit right through the city center. During the run Van Dam made some starts with the launch control system, but unfortunately the engine stalled at the third start. That meant an early end of the demo run.
Despite this Carlo van Dam was very enthusiastic; “Fantastic. It is an honor to be the first driver to get a chance of driving the Netherlands car and it’s extra special that this is happening in my hometown Rotterdam. A superb car to drive. I want to thank Jan Lammers very much for giving me this chance. I was busy entertaining the spectators and made some trial starts, the first two times it went well, unfortunately the engine stalled the third time.”
A1 Team Netherlands will now continue its preparation for the 2008/09 season, with the official tests scheduled for early September. The first race with the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari will be on 21 September at the Italian circuit of Mugello.
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