60 replies to this topic

[SchuOz]

Results from Practise 2



1 FRA FRANCE 11 1'46.972 - - 181.4 12 269.8
2 GER GERMANY 11 1'47.294 +0.322
3 POR PORTUGAL 9 1'47.414 +0.442
4 CZE CZECH REPUBLIC 11 1'47.461
5 ITA ITALY 8 1'47.673 +0.701
6 IRL IRELAND 12 1'47.675 +0.703
7 SUI SWITZERLAND 8 1'47.899 +0.927
8 PAK PAKISTAN 7 1'48.168 +1.196
9 MEX MEXICO 11 1'48.194 +1.222
10 CHN CHINA 12 1'48.281 +1.309
11 RSA SOUTH AFRICA 11 1'48.326 +1.354
12 JPN JAPAN 7 1'48.345 +1.373
13 NED NETHERLANDS 9 1'48.473 +1.501
14 CAN CANADA 9 1'48.555 +1.583
15 INA INDONESIA 7 1'48.662 +1.690
16 NZL NEW ZEALAND 9 1'48.901 +1.929 8
17 USA USA 10 1'48.990 +2.018
18 AUT AUSTRIA 9 1'49.694 +2.722
19 LIB LEBANON 11 1'49.936 +2.964
20 MAL MALAYSIA 2 1'49.999 +3.027
21 AUS AUSTRALIA 11 1'50.053 +3.081
22 GBR GREAT BRITAIN 10 1'50.659 +3.687
23 IND INDIA 6 1'50.796 +3.824
24 BRA BRAZIL 3 1'51.741 +4.769

[sainsburypeter]

Amazing that France are so consistent. As a newbie to a1gp why have France had so much success this year?

[Bumper]

Atlantics' Katherine Legge and IRL's Scott Dixon just finished guest runs in Dubai for respectively Team Great Britain and Team New Zealand, with various results:

Legge managed a best time of 1min 50.6 (Robbie Kerr 1 min 48.2)
Dixon started off with a low 1min51.07 but improved that later on to a 1min 48.9 (Matt Halliday 1min 48.02).

France definitely seems to be in a league of their own.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by sainsburypeter
Amazing that France are so consistent. As a newbie to a1gp why have France had so much success this year?

Two of the three or four best drivers and easily the best team. So they don't have to spend so long on getting set-ups &c.

[carbonfibre]

Yep since France and Switzerland are being runned by the same team (DAMS i believe) they can share setup knowledge etc plus they have some good drivers.

[benn5325]

Helicopters to remove cars
Just sounds like a bad idea......

[SchuOz]

The are the official practise times from Friday.
I go the times in the first post from the official A1 site, don't know why they we're wrong.

Pos Team Driver Time Laps
1. France Nicolas Lapierre 1:46.073 17
2. Ireland Ralph Firman 1:46.209 + 0.136 23
3. Switzerland Neel Jani 1:46.541 + 0.468 20
4. Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1:46.753 + 0.680 18
5. Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1:46.766 + 0.693 16
6. Japan Hayanari Shimoda 1:46.855 + 0.782 15
7. Pakistan Adam Khan 1:47.018 + 0.945 23
8. Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1:47.067 + 0.994 12
9. Canada Sean Mcintosh 1:47.280 + 1.207 24
10. Germany Adrian Sutil 1:47.292 + 1.219 22
11. New Zealand Matt Halliday 1:47.341 + 1.268 18
12. Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1:47.416 + 1.343 18
13. Portugal Alvaro Parente 1:47.426 + 1.353 22
14. Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1:47.463 + 1.390 6
15. South Africa Stephen Simpson 1:47.548 + 1.475 21
16. China Tengyi Jiang 1:47.563 + 1.490 18
17. Brazil Nelson Piquet 1:47.574 + 1.501 17
18. Mexico Salvador Duran 1:47.585 + 1.512 7
19. Australia Will Davison 1:47.745 + 1.672 20
20. Malaysia Alex Yoong 1:47.849 + 1.776 13
21. Austria Mathias Lauda 1:47.924 + 1.851 21
22. USA Philip Giebler 1:48.151 + 2.078 13
23. India Armaan Ebrahim 1:48.595 + 2.522 22
24. Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1:48.638 + 2.565 24


Saturday practise starts in 45mins from the time of this post.

[V10 Fireworks]

Originally posted by Bumper
Atlantics' Katherine Legge and IRL's Scott Dixon just finished guest runs in Dubai for respectively Team Great Britain and Team New Zealand, with various results:

Legge managed a best time of 1min 50.6 (Robbie Kerr 1 min 48.2)
Dixon started off with a low 1min51.07 but improved that later on to a 1min 48.9 (Matt Halliday 1min 48.02).

France definitely seems to be in a league of their own.

Interesting that Halliday has slightly quicker time than Kerr, but Kerr is from a background as F3 champ considered perhaps as capable open wheel driver whereas Halliday is by all means absolutely not. A1 GP is a bucket of bolts that means bugger all?

[Frans]

The French are cheating, I am sure.....
dont't know how and stuff, but they are.....

[SchuOz]

Official Practise 3

1 FRA FRANCE Nicolas LAPIERRE 13 1'45.676 - - 183.6 18 270.5
2 GBR GREAT BRITAIN Robbie KERR 16 1'45.743 +0.067
3 NED NETHERLANDS Jos VERSTAPPEN 21 1'45.808 +0.132
4 IRL IRELAND Ralph FIRMAN 12 1'45.999 +0.323
5 ITA ITALY Enrico TOCCACELO 9 1'46.047 +0.371
6 GER GERMANY Adrian SUTIL 18 1'46.154 +0.478
7 MEX MEXICO Salvador DURAN 11 1'46.182 +0.506
8 BRA BRAZIL Nelson Angelo PIQUET 10 1'46.206 +0.530
9 JPN JAPAN Hayanari SHIMODA 10 1'46.283 +0.607
10 SUI SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 12 1'46.322 +0.646
11 PAK PAKISTAN Adam KHAN 5 1'46.391 +0.715
12 CZE CZECH REPUBLIC Tomas ENGE 8 1'46.521 +0.845
13 RSA SOUTH AFRICA Stephen SIMPSON 18 1'46.568 +0.892
14 USA USA Philip GIEBLER 8 1'46.573 +0.897
15 MAL MALAYSIA Alex YOONG 15 1'46.581 +0.905
16 CAN CANADA Sean McINTOSH 20 1'46.613 +0.937
17 IND INDIA Armaan EBRAHIM 22 1'46.774 +1.098
18 INA INDONESIA Ananda MIKOLA 10 1'46.783 +1.107
19 CHN CHINA Tengyi JIANG 8 1'46.802 +1.126
20 NZL NEW ZEALAND Matt HALLIDAY 16 1'46.841 +1.165
21 POR PORTUGAL Alvaro PARENTE 10 1'46.949 +1.273
22 AUS AUSTRALIA Will DAVISON 15 1'47.106 +1.430
23 AUT AUSTRIA Mathias LAUDA 14 1'47.129 +1.453
24 LIB LEBANON Basil SHAABAN 23 1'47.179 +1.503

[carbonfibre]

Hmm Jos is going a bit better today it seems.

[sainsburypeter]

Ive tried using this live feed before but doesnt seem to work this time. anyone got any other links?

http://boss.streamos...cing_051022.asx

[SchuOz]

Qualifying:


1. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:46.383 1:45.992 1:45.926 3:31.918
2. Nicolas Lapierre France 1:46.285 1:46.266 3:32.551 +0.633
3. Ralph Firman Ireland 1:47.047 1:46.459 1:46.167 3:32.626 +0.708
4. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil 1:46.514 1:46.113 1:46.721 3:32.627 +0.709
5. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:46.964 1:46.201 1:46.433 3:32.634 +0.716
6. Adrian Sutil Germany 1:47.112 1:46.489 1:46.616 3:33.105 +1.187
7. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:47.530 1:46.539 1:46.768 3:33.307 +1.389
8. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:47.942 1:46.934 1:46.386 3:33.320 +1.402
9. Sean McIntosh Canada 1:47.503 1:46.856 1:46.985 3:33.841 +1.923
10. Alvaro Parente Portugal 1:48.063 1:47.284 1:46.834 3:34.118 +2.200
11. Enrico Toccacelo Italy 1:47.658 1:47.201 1:46.940 3:34.141 +2.223
12. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 1:48.492 1:47.214 1:47.019 3:34.233 +2.315
13. Stephen Simpson South Africa 1:48.046 1:47.309 1:46.943 3:34.252 +2.334
14. Hayanari Shimoda Japan 1:48.114 1:46.772 1:47.730 3:34.502 +2.584
15. Philip Giebler USA 1:47.828 1:48.017 1:47.312 1:47.380 3:34.692 +2.774
16. Tengyi Jiang China 1:50.341 1:47.547 1:47.378 3:34.925 +3.007
17. Matt Halliday New Zealand 1:47.774 1:47.569 1:47.407 3:34.976 +3.058
18. Armaan Ebrahim India 1:49.740 1:48.324 1:47.383 1:47.624 3:35.007 +3.089
19. Jos Verstappen Netherlands 1:48.148 1:47.515 1:47.559 3:35.074 +3.156
20. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:48.029 1:47.154 1:48.379 3:35.183 +3.265
21. Mathias Lauda Austria 1:50.245 1:48.169 1:47.812 3:35.981 +4.063
22. Will Davison Australia 1:48.824 1:48.637 1:49.336 1:47.639 3:36.276 +4.358
23. Basil Shaaban Lebanon 1:59.641 1:49.696 1:48.373 3:38.069 +6.151
24. Salvador Duran Mexico 1:48.002 1:48.002 -

[ensign14]

Hm, less than a hundredth of a second over three laps between 3rd and 5th.

[Punisher6]

USA viewers, please email OLN and complain about the distorted picture that is caused by squashing a 16x9 image into a 4x3 screen. Thank them for showing it in the first place, but tell them to letter box the damn thing.

Thank you very much.

[Menace]

Originally posted by Punisher6
USA viewers, please email OLN and complain about the distorted picture that is caused by squashing a 16x9 image into a 4x3 screen. Thank them for showing it in the first place, but tell them to letter box the damn thing.

Thank you very much.

No please dont. Try stretching a 4x3 image to a 16x9 and see which is worse! I cant wait for the day that every channel comes in 16x9 HD...

[Rockford]

This link should still work for streaming:

http://boss.streamos...cing_051022.asx

[sainsburypeter]

Originally posted by Rockford
This link should still work for streaming:

http://boss.streamos...cing_051022.asx

Thanks for that...that works a treat

[V10 Fireworks]

Originally posted by SchuOz

22. Will Davison Australia

Will Davison v. Will Power. Power wins, it's a no contest IMHO, but there are still people who swear that Davison is the superior driver.


That Dick Johnson Racing have said that their signing of Will Davison is comparable to the signings of Marcos Ambrose and James Courtney by Stone Brothers Racing, seems to suggest that DJR has gone completely loony

[Fortymark]

Incredible, after 1 lap there´s more overtakings than during an full GP distance in F1.

[Fortymark]

What happened to Piquet?

[LB]

Originally posted by Fortymark
What happened to Piquet?

No idea, same with Enge, I have no clue who he hit, I think it was MacIntosh but *shrug*

France is gonna hunt GB down....

[Fortymark]

Yeah, Fance quick now. Fastest lap

[Fortymark]

Robbie having brake problems or his tyres finished?

[carbonfibre]

Damn Jos again bad luck, he was driving really well until he got his drive through, but after that he still went up from 14th to 9th.

[Fortymark]

Originally posted by carbonfibre
Damn Jos again bad luck, he was driving really well until he got his drive through, but after that he still went up from 14th to 9th.

Wasn´t he up to 3:rd position? He toke a place at the last corner but had a contact

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Frans


The French are cheating, I am sure.....
dont't know how and stuff, but they are.....

I thought this was rubbish, as per, but then they showed France overtaking South Africa down the straight - and South Africa was using the powerboost...

The techies would know this - is it possible to overcome a 30bhp disadvantage through wing/suspension settings on their own? Or is there any other way where you can go faster down the straights with a power disadvantage whilst still being quicker through the corners?

[Ross Stonefeld]

I dont know how you could cheat in A1, all the cars are stored at the same building and maintained by the same people. The teams only get command of them at the race weekend.

Jos is doing awesome, what is that, 100% record of wins and poles so far this season? Mega.

[carbonfibre]

Originally posted by Fortymark


Wasn´t he up to 3:rd position? He toke a place at the last corner but had a contact

Yes but he got a drive through again. He always seems to have bad luck when he is on or near a podium finish.

[Tooheavy]

Originally posted by ensign14
I thought this was rubbish, as per, but then they showed France overtaking South Africa down the straight - and South Africa was using the powerboost...

The techies would know this - is it possible to overcome a 30bhp disadvantage through wing/suspension settings on their own? Or is there any other way where you can go faster down the straights with a power disadvantage whilst still being quicker through the corners?

Yeah I saw this too. France did not look to get much of a slingshot - they just pulled out and powered past. And South Africa were relatively quick this weekend.

I don't think the aero is adjustable - with the exception of ride height (pitch is probably not much of an issue as you would need about 5cm drop at rear wheels to reduce car pitch angle by 1 degree), so that might point to significant variation in engine power. Maybe they were just running significantly different ride heights.

A 10km/hr at 250km/hr (say 4%) top speed difference with the same aero drag would generally imply about 10% more power or about 50hp. 5km/hr difference would be more like 30hp (supposedly what the power boost buttton gives). Some pretty simple acoustic + video recordings done along a straight during qualifying would give you a pretty good idea as to engine power variation.

Whatever is going on I am sure that there will be a lot of video, acoustic and photo reconaissance going on from other teams on France to help them copy their setup, so maybe they will catch up.

As an aside; given testing limitations a team that was really serious about this series could measure up a car (3d photogrammetry) and make up a copy to test and practice and perfect setups on in secret - would probably cost less than a million to do it well.

[Ross Stonefeld]

And the GP2 teams probably already have done that, so its even more economical in price.

[Ben]

Originally posted by Frans


The French are cheating, I am sure.....
dont't know how and stuff, but they are.....

If you're serious (as I fear you are) you are possibly more stupid than I could possibly have ever imagined. I know you're president of the stupid fanboy union, but seriously...

DAMS are an excellent team with a solid track record in this type of racing. Racing for Holland aren't. Nicholas Lapierre is driving well, and it is no coincidence that Switzerland (also DAMS-run) are winning as well.

Ben

[LB]

Originally posted by ensign14
I thought this was rubbish, as per, but then they showed France overtaking South Africa down the straight - and South Africa was using the powerboost...

The techies would know this - is it possible to overcome a 30bhp disadvantage through wing/suspension settings on their own? Or is there any other way where you can go faster down the straights with a power disadvantage whilst still being quicker through the corners?

There is the small but rather significant point that these cars actually require driving. Therefor it could be that Simpson made a mistake in the previous corner - hit the boost to try and compensate but it wasn't enough and Lapierre got by.

[ensign14]

Would that be enough to make up for the speed difference, given the suggestion that the 30bhp would be worth 5km/h? Lapierre couldn't have been THAT much faster coming out of the corner as he was following the South African. Much bigger slingshot effect/drafting than would be expected?

[polaris]

I was at the track at turn 12 and could see that france was catching GB steadliy on every lap, it was only a matter of time. the pass occured on turn 10 in fairly copybook style. i was alittle surprised to see that by 12 there was already a 2 or 3 car lenghth margin. I have to say though that as GB was being caught the car was evermore underpressure locking brakes and not taking the best line as a result. i think its just a matter of the driver gaining a 10th here and there on every corner. Driver or setup or both but dont think there is any more to it. In fact same could be said for alot of others behind them.

[fullcourseyellow]

Is there any way to watch old A1 races on the internet?

[Fortymark]

Originally posted by polaris
I was at the track at turn 12 and could see that france was catching GB steadliy on every lap, it was only a matter of time. the pass occured on turn 10 in fairly copybook style. i was alittle surprised to see that by 12 there was already a 2 or 3 car lenghth margin. I have to say though that as GB was being caught the car was evermore underpressure locking brakes and not taking the best line as a result. i think its just a matter of the driver gaining a 10th here and there on every corner. Driver or setup or both but dont think there is any more to it. In fact same could be said for alot of others behind them.

Did you see the 2005 F1 race too? In such case what are your impressions trackside? F1 vs A1

On the TV screen it looked like they touched a little. And yes, he was locking his wheels all the times for a couple of laps there. They must have quite hard tyres..

[Ross Stonefeld]

erm, one was in Dubai, one was in Bahrain

[Felix]

Polaris: I was at the track at turn 12...

Any chance you could give us an idea of spectator numbers, please, Polaris. Apart from the main stand, which holds (I was told when there 6 months back) about 5 000, the place looked absolutely empty

[Fortymark]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
erm, one was in Dubai, one was in Bahrain

Same ****, different name...;)

[polaris]

Yeh shame the F1 isnt here, but isnt that why A1 started.

There is no way they could hold an F1 race here at the moment, the infrastructure (ie roads) around the circuit just couldnt take it but the track is ok.

I would say the main stand was about one third capacity and there would not have been more than around a couple of hundred in the other areas. It was great for getting a good vantage point but I would say disapointing for the organisers. I dont believe they could have expected much more though as Sunday is a working day here. If they had have held it on a Friday it would have been much more. I went to the speedboat GP on friday and there would have been a similar crowd for a far less known event. Then compare that to the rugby sevens last week, 30,000 people!

Can anyone tell me what crowd numbers there were at the A1GP at Brands Hatch? I hear it was the best turn out so far.

As for comparison to F1, I have only seen that at Malaysia and Melbourne. I would say the power difference is staggering and so is the noise. Standing close to the track as you can in Melb you can literally feel the energy off the F1 cars as they go past, absolutely awesome! But the V8s do sound great and up close you can see that they must be a handful to drive, so you gotta admire the drivers, good show and highly recommend going if there is one near you.

[polaris]

Originally posted by Fortymark


Did you see the 2005 F1 race too? In such case what are your impressions trackside? F1 vs A1

On the TV screen it looked like they touched a little. And yes, he was locking his wheels all the times for a couple of laps there. They must have quite hard tyres..

I would be interested to know how some of the different formulas compare on the same track. EG F1,GP2,A1,FIAGT, etc. Perhaps there are some european circuits that have hosted them all? These are approximate times I can find on the Dubai circuit

A1GP 2005 1min.45sec
F Renault 2004 1.55
FIAGT 2005 1.56
ETC 2004 2.12

Would really like to know what we could expect from F1 on this circuit

[carbonfibre]

Didnt all those series run on the Sepang track?

At least i know F1, A1 and GP2 have been driving on that track, im not sure about the FIA GT.

[carbonfibre]

Originally posted by Fortymark


Same ****, different name...;)

Well i think the Bahrein track is a lot better, with the structures as well. There is no atmosphere at all in Dubai with just 1 grandstand with only a couple of places....

[Haddock]

On the crowd figures, I think Brands Hatch got about 35k for race day. Not bad for a series that's not on terrestrial television here, and which non-race fans have probably never heard of. This whole idea of taking motor racing to new countries isn't really working though - its not quite a case of "build it and they will come". Countries with no motorsports tradition don't seem to get big crowds. Has it not occurred to these people that perhaps there was a reason that nobody took races to places like Dubai and Bahrain before?

[LB]

Yeah, there was no track...

Turkey had a decent crowd iirc.

[Option1]

Originally posted by LB
Yeah, there was no track...

...

Neil

[Punisher6]

Originally posted by Menace


No please dont. Try stretching a 4x3 image to a 16x9 and see which is worse! I cant wait for the day that every channel comes in 16x9 HD...

They both suck.

But if you are going to broadcast something not in HD, go ahead and letterbox it so it looks correct.
You can zoom in on your 16x9 and it looks ok.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by LB
Yeah, there was no track...

Actually there was. A Dubai GP was held in 1981-can't have been very successful as it was never repeated?

[Russell_Sheldon]

The crowd was disappointing, for all the reasons given by polaris. And no, the Dubai Autodrome's facilities is not even nearly on a par with Bahrain and Turkey. But it will be, when it needs to be!

The track itself is superb, with plenty of overtaking opportunities. Now that's a unique concept! The other unique thing about A1 GP is that it is very exciting with loads of entertaining wheel-to-wheel racing and plenty of overtaking.

The organisation was slick and the presentation was on a par - dare I say it - with what F1 has to offer. It was also great to mingle with the drivers and teams in the paddock and to be able to chat to the likes of Sir John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nikki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Alan Jones, Jan Lammers and Tim Schenken.

Here are a couple of pics (I'm not very good at it and have a cheap digital camera):


Alan Jones and myself comparing beer bellies...


Team Brazil




Team Pakistan


Team Germany


Team Brazil at the pit-wall


Team Switzerland


Jos "The Boss" Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen


Emmo gave me a damaged front wing from the Team Brazil car and autographed it, along with Nelson Piquet Jnr


Prototype Scalextric A1GP Team Great Britain car


Team GBR


Team New Zealand



Team USA


Team Canada


Team Mexico


Team Austria


Team Italy


Team Japan


Team South Africa


I decided to support the Czech team....


Although Team Great Britain wasn't bad either....


What the heck.... I decided to support all the teams!


Team France on the grid


Team Switzerland were on pole


Nelson Piquet Jnr


Sir John Surtees with Churchill




Team Canada


The grid gets ready


Neel Jani leads from pole

http://www.geocities...um/DSC00594.JPG
A helicopter was used to retrieve stranded cars

http://www.geocities...um/DSC00599.JPG
France 1st (middle), Great Britain 2nd, South Africa 3rd

http://www.geocities...um/DSC00542.JPG
Nicolas Lapierre is definitely a future World Champion



Kind regards,

Russell