Season 4

[kerrmanningjarv]

Ah yes - Italy too - they unveiled that white monstrosity at Mugello, which I hope isn't their final livery.

[Kiwi3]

The UK round is Brands after all...

...and no Mugello this season.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Yep, posted on previous page

Going back to which teams have cars - South Africa unveiled a livery but that may just have been a showcar, not their own (as the car had no fin on it).

[RichardRenes]

Originally Posted by kerrmanningjarv

Portugal don't, as above...

Malaysia do, as they have been writing articles on their site about the build process.

Australia do as well, as we have seen pictures of the car being built on A1GP.com... same with (I think) Indonesia.

New Zealand must have one as Chris van der Drift has announced on his website that he will drive for them.

Apart from that... I don't know any more.

For sure: AUS, NZL, NED, MAL, INA and ITA

the rest is anyone's guess. They do build 4 of them a week they say, and we're 3 weeks further on, so I'd say there should be about 18 cars ready.

As for Mugello cancelled: I'd interpret that as a sign from A1 to one of their partners: it's your fault we're way behind schedule

This is off course purely my interpretation, and I do not claim this to be the truth.

[rychard]

Car in SA was a show car. We all expected it to run, but there was no engine in it!

Orr was due to test, but is racing a Shelby Can-Am this weekend which suggests SA team probably wont be testing.

[jondownunder]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70426

It was believed that three other circuits were in contention for the event, but the series has confirmed that it will visit Brands for the fourth consecutive season.

Does anyone know what the other circuits in contention were? I'd assume Silverstone and Donington, but what about the third? Snetterton? Rockingham? Thruxton?? I presume circuits have to be up to a certain FIA standard, so wouldn't that limit possibilities to Brands, Donington and Silverstone??

Anyway, I'm personally glad Brands has been confirmed. It may not be great for passing, but the GP circuit is great for spectating.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70426



Does anyone know what the other circuits in contention were? I'd assume Silverstone and Donington, but what about the third? Snetterton? Rockingham? Thruxton?? I presume circuits have to be up to a certain FIA standard, so wouldn't that limit possibilities to Brands, Donington and Silverstone??

Anyway, I'm personally glad Brands has been confirmed. It may not be great for passing, but the GP circuit is great for spectating.

Silverstone and Donington are the only others with FIA 2 rating which I think is what's required...

What's the biggest single seaters to run on Rockingham's infield circuits?

[Kiwi3]

Just a thought, I wonder if it was Donington, but now that they are supposedly having an F1 race in 2010 (yeah, right) Bernie said "if you want F1, forget about running A1GP...".

[META4]

Any informations about today's Test? How many cars Running?

[Lam Pak]

china didnt get their car ready on time. lot bad for the team. they should give us more respect. its allbout respect. who is testing today is taking advantage.

[kfsracer]

Originally Posted by Lam Pak

china didnt get their car ready on time. lot bad for the team. they should give us more respect. its allbout respect. who is testing today is taking advantage.

Lam Pak, stop making it all about China. First of all MOST of the teams don't have their cars (including front runners France, Switzerland etc...).

And what makes you say that the teams who test today will gain an advantage? It might be the contrary: they find out the problems on the new car, which could be solved for the second tests when the others participate. That's just one example. In the end the pre-season test time will be same for all teams...

[Francis Albert]

Indeed. Except for finding possible problems as early as possible, it might also makse sense to test later, together with 15-20 other cars, rather than just 5.

[Lam Pak]

sorry if they thinkin this way i think a1gp is departin for the cemetery. the management has a kinda of groppy people decision maker. you cant align a official test on the pavement of six car. i dunno other teams but i care for china team. my opinion is the teams who get cars first will have more time to work in the cars before the first race. the gunshot will be their weeping.

[kerrmanningjarv]

We only have pictorial evidence to prove the presence of 4 cars - RSA, NED, AUS and the series test car. We expect Malaysia, Italy, Indonesia and New Zealand as well but who knows...

And Lam Pak... GBR didn't get a car either but I'm not complaining about bias or anything... I understand that the cars have been built slower than expected.

[diabloA1]

All teams will get equal running time before the first race though it may have to be at different tracks.

Some teams like China are at the tail end of the delivery period unfortunately but A1GP is trying their best given the situation. There is no unfair advantage for those running today.

I have met Steven Lu and Liu Yu and have chatted with them and they have their views but like the rest of the grid they just want A1GP to get underway and make the show a success despite knowing that some things are not perfect.

To be honest, things are never perfect, not even in F1 but you just get on with the job. China like all other teams are not 'victimized'. No such thing. If anything they're impressive. Brian Ireland did great engineering work for them last season. And they face the same problems as the other 'developing' race nations. Like Malaysia and many others they lack a good pool of drivers. At the end of the day teams can choose to whine or get on with it. The level of professionalism among teams is high enough that all chose the latter.

[kerrmanningjarv]

For those cynics/pessimists like me out there who will only believe something if they see it with their own two eyes, here are pictures from today:









Top to bottom: 1. Australia in the garage (John Martin will drive the car whenever it's out on track)
2. Thomas Biagi in the series test car
3. Adrian Zaugg in the South African car
4. Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Netherlands car

[Kiwi3]

Great to see the new car, in three teams colours at least. I guess the wet weather data gathered will be shared with all teams, otherwise NED, RSA and AUS will disappear into the distance if it doesn't rain at other tests but does at Zandvoort!

Any idea if NZL, MAL or any others ran?

[kerrmanningjarv]

NZL, MAL and ITA cars and were meant to be there.

INA have a car but I am told they are not there.

At the moment, only news on A1GP.com is from the Aussie team and only pics are of the cars above.

So I have no idea about any other teams, sorry.

[dave not neil]

Originally Posted by Lam Pak

china didnt get their car ready on time. lot bad for the team. they should give us more respect. its allbout respect. who is testing today is taking advantage.

Running around in the wet, hardly anything to gain from that!

[kerrmanningjarv]

We now have pictures of:





1. Malaysia - Fairuz Fauzy
2. New Zealand - Chris van der Drift

Also, the Aussie car was out on track later in the day:

[cos]

Fauzy was fastest with a 1:35 in those conditions; for reference the fastest SuperleagueFormula lap in similar wetness was a 1:40 (assuming they used the same layout?)

[kerrmanningjarv]

A1 may have cut out the Foggy Esses/Melbourne loop, but I doubt it... maybe the car is just quicker than SF's?

[RichardRenes]

there are no pics of the NZL car in running condition. I know, being an amateur photographer, that a gloss black surface is hardest to photograph, but with an army of the best photographers in place, surely one or two images of the car in running condition should make the cut.

[cappra250]

I

[dave not neil]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

there are no pics of the NZL car in running condition. I know, being an amateur photographer, that a gloss black surface is hardest to photograph, but with an army of the best photographers in place, surely one or two images of the car in running condition should make the cut.

NZL did not run