09/04/2006
NEWS STORY
In a sport not known for prize money, A1 Grand Prix has an unusually generous allocation for the top ten finishers in the Feature Race at each A1 Grand Prix of Nations.
With $1,000,000 on offer at each of the 11 rounds, the grand total comes to $11,000,000, divided as follows from first place down to tenth: $300,000, $200,000, $150,000, $110,000, $80,000, $60,000, $40,000, $30,000, $20,000 and $10,000.
A1 Team France were the runaway inaugural A1 Grand Prix champions and this was reflected in their prize money tally of $1,920,000 for the team and $990,000 and $930,000 respectively for drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Premat.
By splitting the rounds between them, though, they were headed on the driver prize money list by A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani who clocked up £1,060,000 in prize money before relinquishing the drive with two rounds remaining to go off to concentrate on his third driver duties in Formula 1 with Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Eventual ranking in the points table isn't a guarantee of the largest prize money tally possible as some teams had their better results in the Sprint Races before stumbling in the Feature Races, thus missing the opportunity of prize money.
A1 Team Great Britain was a notable underachiever in prize money for this very reason, even though the team still earned $820,000, with retirements from the Feature Race at the Brands Hatch establishing something of a trend. Feature Race disappointments were to follow at Sepang, Durban, Sentul and Shanghai. Conversely, A1 Team Netherlands ranked seventh overall, but earned the fourth largest amount of prize money.
Nations
1. France - $1,930,000
2. Switzerland - $1,060,000
3. Britain - $820,000
4. Netherlands - $770,000
5. Canada and Australia - $660,000
7. Malaysia - $650,000
8. New Zealand - $600,000
9. Czech Republic and Mexico - $510,000
11. Portugal - $500,000
12. Brazil - $490,000
13. Germany - $360,000
14. Italy - $350,000
15. Ireland and South Africa - $290,000
17. USA - $190,000
18. Austria - $120,000
19. China and Pakistan - $80,000
21. Japan - $50,000
22. Indonesia - $30,000
Drivers
1. Jani - 1,060,000
2. Lapierre - $990,000
3. Premat - $930,000
4. Kerr - $820,000
5. Verstappen - $770,000
6. Yoong - $570,000
7. McIntosh - $540,000
8. Duran and Enge - $510,000
9. Parente - $500,000
10. Halliday - $460,000
11. Piquet - $380,000
12. Scheider - $360,000
13. Firman and Simpson - $290,000
15. Toccacelo - $250,000
16. Power - $200,000
17. Briscoe - $180,000
19. Marshall - $150,000
20. Reid - $140,000
21. Davison - $130,000
22. Carpentier - $120,000
23. Fittipaldi, Lauda and Speed - $110,000
26 - Fauzy, Jiang and Khan - $80,000
29. Busnelli - $60,000
30. Herta - $50,000
31. Papis - $40,000
32. Fukuda, Giebler and Mikola - $30,000
35. Friesacher and Noda - $20,000