15/02/2009
NEWS STORY
A1 Team South Africa is aiming to bounce back from an indifferent start to the 2008/09 season when the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport visits the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit for the first time for round five this weekend (February 20 to 22).
The team, with 22-year-old Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of the distinctively-liveried Vulindlela ("clear the way"), is currently ninth in the championship points standings.
"I'm really looking forward to racing at Kyalami for the first time," said the young South African. "I am always highly motivated to do well for my country, but especially in front of the home fans. We didn't do so well in Durban last year and we haven't enjoyed the start to the season we would have liked, so the Kyalami round is a big opportunity to get some good results and boost our championship points. We are still aiming for a top five finish at the end of the season."
He says the main issues have been trying to get to grips with the balance of the team's new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car, and set it up to his liking to be able to push it as hard as possible.
"There seems to be something which makes it very hard to really push to the limit, because the car gets extremely nervous. But I have lots of confidence in the engineering team and am sure that, together, we will figure it out and can get going."
Like the other drivers, Zaugg has no racing experience in an A1GP car of the 4,26-km 11-turn Kyalami circuit, although he completed a few demonstration laps in the previous A1GP car last year.
"Kyalami can be compared to Zandvoort (in Netherlands) or Eastern Creek (in Australia). It will present a real challenge to the drivers," he says. "There are ups and downs, quick turns, blind turns, it has a bit of everything. There are some slow and fast chicanes and it's quite bumpy in some places, but it's still a nice mix. Overtaking will be difficult, but there will be one or two places where it will definitely be possible.
"The key will be to have a car that works well over bumps and is good in direction changes. A responsive car will be important."