Silverstone A1 test

hi,
just wondering if anyone has any news / times from the first A1 test today ?

Not sure if there will be any times published, but we'll see. Seem to be quite a few drivers out in force; aside from the previously confirmed ones (Kerr, Jos, Lamy etc.) there's Piquet and Dirani (Brazil), Jeff Simmons (USA), Tingyi Jiang (China), Neel Jani (Switzerland), Matt Halliday (NZ), Stephen Simpson (South Africa), Christian Jones (Australia), Loic Duval (France) and Adam Kahn (Pakistan). Lebanon and Mexico are also testing.

Times (now on motorsportvision.co.uk)

1 Great Britain 48.888 seconds
2 Brazil 49.069
3 Switzerland 49.095
4 France 49.271
5 Portugal 49.393
6 Pakistan 49.506
7 Malaysia 49.634
8 USA 49.740
9 South Africa 49.864
10 Lebanon 49.976
11 Australia 50.066
12 Mexico 50.265
13 Netherlands 50.377
14 New Zealand 50.610
15 China 55.783

Ahhh, makes you feel proud to be British!

Ahhh, makes you feel proud to be British!

Seems the whole point of the series is already working then! :)

Pretty close so far (except for China...); and good to see countries like Pakistan and Lebanon up there already. Anyone know if there were any particular reliability troubles (à la GP2)?

lots of pics on www.****************** Brasil livery looks great. The British livery is rubbish (sorry to diss a fellow designer if he/she reads that) but its very weak.

Not all the liveries are definitive at this stage

probably not. You didnt design it did you?

Isn't the British livery going to be racing green?

Here's a list of all the drivers who took part today:

Great Britain Robbie Kerr, Alex Lloyd
Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr., Danilo Dirani, Joao Paulo Oliveiria
Switzerland Neel Jani
France Loic Duval, Alexandre Premat, Nicolas Lapierre
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Pakistan Adam Kahn
Malaysia Alex Yoong
USA Jeff Simmons
South Africa Stephen Simpson, Thomas Scheckter
Lebanon Kalil Beschir, Basil Shaaban
Australia Christian Jones
Mexico Luis Diaz, Memo Rojas, David Martinez, Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Jonny Reid, Matt Halliday
China Qing Hua Ma, Tingyi Jiang

Isn't the British livery going to be racing green?
John Surtees asked me to put some design ideas together. He wanted Vanwall green (as Vanwall was the first British GP car and John drove for them briefly) but also incorporate the Union flag and white space for sponsors. I began with a few quick sketches and was then put on hold. The Sheik wanted far more control over liveries than John thought, so out of his control. No idea who has done the latest design.

I would love it if they went back to the original racing colours. They could create new ones for Lebanon (perhaps Monaco's with green wings), Pakistan (green with white "bonnet"), China (red with yellow "chassis")...

Here's a list of all the drivers who took part today:

Great Britain Robbie Kerr, Alex Lloyd
Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr., Danilo Dirani, Joao Paulo Oliveiria
Switzerland Neel Jani
France Loic Duval, Alexandre Premat, Nicolas Lapierre
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Pakistan Adam Kahn
Malaysia Alex Yoong
USA Jeff Simmons
South Africa Stephen Simpson, Thomas Scheckter
Lebanon Kalil Beschir, Basil Shaaban
Australia Christian Jones
Mexico Luis Diaz, Memo Rojas, David Martinez, Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Jonny Reid, Matt Halliday
China Qing Hua Ma, Tingyi Jiang
I've seen that list too,K-b, but I'm not sure it's correct. In another story I read that Tomas Schechter is flying in to drive tomorrow. There is also talk of Tony Kanaan having a run. Adam Khan is the artist formerly known as Adam-Langley Khan... Quite quick, actually, but in general today sounds to have been not much more than a shakedown.

BRG would have been ace though wouldn't it

Well the cars and drivers have to have a shakedown at some point, and they are often very important. Ok so the times aren't really relevant but testing times never are. Cars cannot be compared as it not known what set up the teams are running, fuel loads, tyres, etc.

back off topic for a second. Remember the Team St.George livery of Darren Manning a few years ago ( http://www.speedcenter.com/news02/pix/sc_n0905_02.jpg )

Ignore the fact its the St George's flag and A1GP needs a Union Flag, but that looks quite good.

It'd be great if the U.S. livery had the eagle did on the nose of the car (like AAR did for CART).

still no sine of the Irish Team yet! getin a bit late!

I don't think GBR's livery is that bad - obviously there'll be some sponsors in the predominantly white areas (e.g. Sky Sports, whose logo is red/white/blue anyway).

Lebanon and Portugal look a bit similar at the moment; but presumably that's due to similar country flags.

Well the cars and drivers have to have a shakedown at some point, and they are often very important.

For a shakedown the times posted are quite impressive: current Silverstone National lap record is 47.404 set by Scott Mansell in a '97-spec F1 Benetton. Top time today in the first proper A1 test was 48.888. These guys should be quick!

still no sine of the Irish Team yet! getin a bit late!


was half listening to the Autosport radio show and they mentioned something about Irish team announcing something next week

ok, heres a quick mock up of how a Union Flag graphic could work on a A1GP car. note lots of areas such as winglets, nose, engine cover and side pod have big areas of colour for sponsors, so it could work

http://img.photobox.co.uk/52585019d2c3d38857ad87a5eb811d987daf17cfb1bd011b6287af0b.jpg

I've seen that list too,K-b, but I'm not sure it's correct. In another story I read that Tomas Schechter is flying in to drive tomorrow. There is also talk of Tony Kanaan having a run. Adam Khan is the artist formerly known as Adam-Langley Khan... Quite quick, actually, but in general today sounds to have been not much more than a shakedown.


That list was the drivers who drove yesterday.

Sheckter will be at Silverstone today.

andy-b - that is sort of what the GB car looks like - It should be green though.

The cars sound incredible, I had a chat with the Sheik and he is the most incredible down to earth chap you could ever meet. Also very enthusiastic

andy-b - that is sort of what the GB car looks like - It should be green though.



The top of the engine cover and the top of the nose the same, everything else is much bolder and thickened up and styled like a flag....agree about Green. The Holland car looks great in its vivid Orange

Andy - get that design off to the Sheik and to Big John!

It's a massive improvement.

The top of the engine cover and the top of the nose the same, everything else is much bolder and thickened up and styled like a flag....agree about Green. The Holland car looks great in its vivid Orange
IMO the Dutch car has too much orange. I would like to see a red-white-blue car with orange. On the other hand there are already some cars with white/red, so this one is more striking.

The Brazilian car looks great: http://www.speedpics.nl/pages/photos/?action=photos&category=DE5BEDB927&subcategory=2B12B3F0D4&currPage=6

BTW your Union Flag car looks great!

Portuguese car has way too much white :/

Today's morning session:
Frankrijk 48.183 - 41 laps
Zwitserland 48.408 - 38 laps
Pakistan 48.573 - 36 laps
Engeland 48.585 - 38 laps
Brazilië 48.848 - 79 laps
Maleisië 48.891 - 47 laps
Portugal 49.007 - 50 laps
Nederland 49.192 - 67 laps
Australië 49.203 - 45 laps
Zuid-Afrika 49.211 - 57 laps
Nieuw-Zeeland 49.430 - 49 laps
USA 49.530 - 33 laps
Mexico 49.557 - 66 laps
Libanon 49.786 - 48 laps
China 51.685 - 33 laps

Source: www.verstappen.nl (http://www.verstappen.nl)

I see in Dutch eyes, Great Britain's team has been replaced by England ;)

All the times from yesterday and today are on the MST website - here (http://www.msttiming.com/home.asp). They are in PDF format and you have to click on the title - bottom left-hand corner of the screen under Special Events. Sorry, I don't seem able to do a more direct link.

Great to see the series off and running and if the testing times are anything to go by the competition is quite close..... however as the f1 folk say.. "it's only testing" ;)

Andy - get that design off to the Sheik and to Big John!

It's a massive improvement.
Very nice Andy - very much sort of what I had in mind, great minds think alike! However John asked me to incorporate 'Vanwall' green as I said. I was proposing to have the front of the nose green, airbrushed and fading into 'arty' union flag stripes, virtually as you have here. I would also have the front end of the engine cover, around the airbox intake green, so from head on camera shots, a lot of green would be prominent. Not sure on the back wing - a big selling space for sponsors. Might have to be white unless they find a company that has corporate scheme to fit in with the red/blue.

Send us a PM with your email address if you like, I'll give you Johns e-mail you can send it on to him.
But as I said, my designs were stopped before they saw them, the Sheik wanted full control over the design.
Cheers.

I see in Dutch eyes, Great Britain's team has been replaced by England ;)
In Holland: England = Great Britain ;)

Same with just about everywhere else unfortunately... :rolleyes:

At least the fact a non-Englishman (Manx) is driving the car gives no-one any excuses!

[/politics] ;)

I'm with most people in thinking that the Brazilian livery is great! Although not as stunning as China, but at least it's quicker ;)

And another I really like is the Dutch livery. At least that's one country sticking to their national racing colours, and I bet it'll really stand out in the crowd.

Shame a lot of them only ran with black cars. But I suppose it keeps us guessing. Can't wait to see what Switzerland, USA, etc. look like :)

Shame a lot of them only ran with black cars. But I suppose it keeps us guessing. Can't wait to see what Switzerland, USA, etc. look like

if New Zealand was in ur list of blak cars .....the new zealand car's livery colour is black, NZ is represented with colour black in all sports. Iwouldnt be surprised if NZ team got the car and all they had to do was to stick a sliver fern on the side !!

if New Zealand was in ur list of blak cars .....the new zealand car's livery colour is black, NZ is represented with colour black in all sports. Iwouldnt be surprised if NZ team got the car and all they had to do was to stick a sliver fern on the side !!

Thats what they did at the test. A silver fern on the side. Once every car is painted up, that will look quite distinctive. There was a Holden Supercar V8 a couple of years ago in Black and Silver as a 'Team NZ' sort of entry and it looked great

Am I the only one surprised to see that Malaysia and Pakistan are quicker than Great Britain?

New Zealand should be green with silver stripe-which looked good when people like Howden Ganley & Bert Hawthorne used it in the 60s-70s.

Any idea why Australia was black in the test? It had a nice green and golden livery at Eastern Creek...

Am I the only one surprised to see that Malaysia and Pakistan are quicker than Great Britain?


It's only testing!

And the drivers of those two cars both have at least some British blood in them anyway ;)

A number of the cars were unpainted, having bare carbon fibre tubs. Probably because they were delivered to the teams very late.

The NZ car was painted and unlike cars fro USA, Aus, Malaysia etc

Thats what they did at the test. A silver fern on the side. Once every car is painted up, that will look quite distinctive. There was a Holden Supercar V8 a couple of years ago in Black and Silver as a 'Team NZ' sort of entry and it looked great

They are still there and doing well this year with ex-BTCC racer and Kiwi Paul Radisich pedalling the car. Check out their website at www.teamkiwiracing.co.nz

Any idea why Australia was black in the test? It had a nice green and golden livery at Eastern Creek...


The one at Eastern Creek has been in loads of country's liveries - it's been demoed all round the world.

The one at Silverstone is Australia's own car.

I reckon Brazil is ahead in the livery stakes at the moment.

They may have pulled off a smart move team-wise as well. In the photos I see Fredric Vasseur, the man behind ASM and ART. And they covered far more laps than anyone else.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Piquet Jr in the car for Brands, because he was ace there in BF3 days and Kanaan has a prior commitment. Mind you, Pizzonia wasn't too shabby either.

foxy mole - you are correct - ART/ASM is running the Brazil car