21/10/2005
NEWS STORY
Ireland
Ralph Firman overcame appalling conditions in today's four sessions in Estoril, Portugal, setting the 7th fastest time on a rain washed circuit. The A1 Team Ireland car was among the quickest throughout the day, though fell victim to the conditions in the final session when Ralph locked the rear wheels going into the slippery Turn 6 and spun into the gravel trap. No damage was done to the car and the A1 Team Ireland mechanics worked superbly to ready the car and benefit from several red-flag stoppages to enable Ralph to complete the final few laps of the delayed session.
Ralph Firman: "Conditions were far from ideal today but we put in some good running and seem to be in good shape in the wet. The track dried quite a lot towards the end of the first of the afternoon sessions, so we decided not to abuse the wet tyres on the track and sat out the end of the session. When it's wet, then damp, then wet again it's a bit of a lottery and there's not much we can learn in those conditions, but looking at the forecast it seems we are in for a mixed weekend. The track itself is really good with some nice challenges, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday."
Andy Miller, Technical Director: "It's been a day of frustrations caused by the weather, plus we lost a little bit of track time towards the end with Ralph's off. The conditions have been neither one thing nor the other for long enough to enable us to draw any strong conclusions. Certainly we have the pace when it's very wet, but at the same time we have some work to do with the set-up in the drier conditions. It would be nice if we could just get a little more consistent running tomorrow morning."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "Today's been a bit of a wash-out so it's difficult looking at the lap times to get an idea of how the weekend is going to go. Certainly Ralph looks comfortable in the wet conditions, but if it's going to be dry on Sunday it would be nice if we could get in some dry-weather running tomorrow in practice and qualifying. It's great to be back here at Estoril, nine years after Formula One was last here, and to be reminded of how good a circuit it is. Ralph seems to enjoy it!"
USA
A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger knew that his team needed to make improvements over their showing in Germany earlier this month. By finishing the first day of practice at the Circuito Estoril in 5th place in second practice session moving up from 17th, A1 Team USA proved to Weidinger that they are heading in the right direction.
During a rain plagued session, the team was bolstered by consistent driving from Scott Speed, as well as the continued presence of Indy Racing League driver, Scott Sharp. Speed was pleased with both the track and the team's performance given the weather conditions.
"I am really pleased with the way we kept improving throughout the day," said Speed. "It's a tough track to get used to but it was fantastic to drive it. We kept getting better and better as the day went on and I am looking forward to qualifying tomorrow."
Team owner Rick Weidinger was pleased with his team's performance today and is pleased with how all the parts of the team are coming together at the right time.
"I am excited about how we are growing as a team," said Weidinger. "Scott really showed today how quickly he can adjust as a driver, Scott Sharp continues to bring that unique drivers' insight that helps us focus as a team and we got another outstanding performance from David Price's racing team. I am looking forward to a great day of qualifying. This all begins with one timed lap in each qualifying segment tomorrow."
France led the way in the first day of practice having the top time in the second session as well as the best time in the first. Rounding out the top five were Brazil, Portugal and Switzerland.
A1 Grand Prix provides national teams and their drivers the opportunity to compete globally on a level playing field with open wheeled race cars that have identical specifications and engines. For the first time in racing history, A1 Grand Prix puts driver against driver and nation against nation. A1 Grand Prix will bring together up to 25 nations representing 80 per cent of the world's population. It is the skill of the drivers and their crews that will determine who wins the race.
The global series will take place across six continents—North and South America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia—and will be televised around the world so fans in both established and emerging markets can experience the thrill of this historic international race series.
Netherlands
Grip seemed to be the magic word at the Estoril circuit today, with the two test sessions of this morning and the free practice sessions of the afternoon all being run on a wet track, sometimes under dry weather conditions. For A1 Team Netherlands it proved to be a very difficult day with both Jeroen Bleekemolen, who drove in the two morning test sessions, and Jos Verstappen not being able to put A1 Team Netherlands into the top of the timesheets today. An eighth place in the first practice session regrettably was the best result for the Dutch team.
Jeroen Bleekemolen started the day for A1 Team Netherlands. He drove the second car of the team during the two special 40 minute test sessions to shakedown the car. Bleekemolen, who drove at the Estoril track in 2004 with the DTM, regrettably only went 12th and 14th in the two sessions in which the teams could test their second car. However, Bleekemolen was pleased that he was behind the wheel of the A1GP car again.
Jeroen Bleekemolen "Off course I'm happy to have the possibility to drive. In the first session we mainly looked at the car to see if everything was working properly and there were a lot of code red situations. That took some time off the drive time in the sessions, which was too bad. Because of this there were no real 40 minute sessions. The conditions were very difficult, very wet, especially in the first session. But we have learned a lot and examined lots of data. All data you gather hopefully will bring you further. At least we were able to try lots of things and for the second session we changed some things. Later today it will be clear if we went in the right direction, or not. The difference with the DTM car I drove here last year is not so big, the speeds in the DTM are quite similar, DTM is also quite fast. Off course the big difference is that a Formule car corners faster".
In the afternoon Jos Verstappen went out on track for the two official free practice sessions of the day. For Verstappen the reunion with the track where he made his Formula 1 debut with Footwork twelve years ago was not a happy one. The A1 Team Netherlands driver, who drove at the track for the last time 10 years ago was struggling with the car and trying to find grip under difficult conditions With both sessions being stopped quite a number of times because of drivers spinning off A1 Team Netherlands did not end higher then eighth in the first session and 13th in the second free practice session. The second session was postponed for 20 minutes because of heavy rain.
Jos Verstappen "Today was very frustrating, a very, very bad day for us. We are driving the car at the limit and we still are four seconds off the top. We just cannot find the grip. If we don't improve fast I am worried about qualifying tomorrow, but for the moment it's reality and we have to cope with this. There is little more I can say."
Tomorrow will see A1 Team Netherlands off course work very hard to close the gap. In the morning there is a third and final free practice session. In the afternoon the four 15 minute qualifying sessions will be run. With weather forecasts predicting more rain for tomorrow, conditions could well be tricky again.
Brazil
The third round of the A1 Grand Prix series got underway today when teams participated in four practice sessions. A1 Team Brasil ran both of its cars and utilised both Nelson Piquet Jr and Tuka Rocha, the two nominated drivers for the Estoril round.
Teams benefited this morning when two extra forty-minute practice sessions were scheduled. A1 Team Brasil used this opportunity to run the second car for the first time. In very wet weather conditions, reserve driver Tuka took the wheel for the first of these sessions to shake down the car. He was only able to complete nine laps due to a red flag and preparation work that needed to be done to the car, but still finished 14th in the standings on his first outing in the A1 car. Nelson took over driving duties for the second session, during which he completed 14 laps and recorded the fastest time, more than half a second quicker than second-placed Portugal.
The rain had stopped and the track dried out throughout this afternoon's first official practice session, and lap times plummeted throughout the hour. A1 Team Brasil, with Nelson at the wheel, was immediately on the pace, and topped the timesheets from 15 minutes into the session until the half-way mark. He finished the session in 5th place after completing 16 laps.
The second official practice was delayed after heavy rain fell at the circuit for several hours. When it got underway, A1 Team Brasil was once again right on the pace. Nelson completed 9 laps during the hour, and finished 2nd overall with a lap time of 1:53.777.
Nelson Piquet Jr: "It was good overall although it was not easy to set-up the car today. The track was always changing, whether it was drying out or getting wetter, and that makes it difficult. We also had a lot of red flags that interrupted the sessions. I am learning a few thing on the car for the rain and I think we need to work a bit tonight and see tomorrow if we have a dry session."
Tuka Rocha: "It was great to drive the car this morning. I did a shakedown on the new car and then bedded in the brakes. Because we were working on this and also there was a red flag I didn't get to do too many laps but I hope I did a good job for the team and I am happy I got the chance to drive."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "I am very happy with today because we have been consistently in the top three. I always think it is important to be consistent in different conditions and we have had everything today, dry, wet and intermediate wet conditions and have remained fast. Nelson has been very good, especially as he has not raced here before. It's all looking good for qualifying tomorrow. They say it will be dry for the afternoon, but who knows what will happen!"
Austria
A1 Team Austria had a difficult day today during four free practice sessions. Torrential rain fell for much of the day which prevented the team from completing a planned test programme. Mathias Lauda, at the wheel of A1 Team Austria's car, experienced traction problems which affected his lap times. Nevertheless, during the day the team managed to complete 47 laps during the allocated 3 hours and 20 minutes. The team will now work hard overnight to prepare the car for tomorrow. Saturday's programme gives teams a further one hour practice tomorrow morning before the afternoon's four-part qualifying session.
Mathias Lauda: "It hasn't been a great day really and I'm not that happy. We could not test anything that we needed to test because it was wet the whole time. The only negative thing on the car is that we do not have any traction, so we need to do some work tonight to do that because I lost a lot of time today because of it. I think the weather is going to be the same tomorrow. We were 12th in the first session but then in the middle for the other sessions and that's not good
enough."
Arno Zensen, Managing Director: "We thought it would be good to have the extra sessions to use the time for testing because the car was basically okay but we had to start from scratch with the rain and it destroyed our plans for the whole day. At Lausitz I thought we found a basis that we could improve on but in wet conditions we have a lack of experience, so we have to learn about the car in the wet too. Time-wise, we are very far away but it was not possible to make any real
improvements. So far we are not happy but we will just keep working and see what happens tomorrow."
Germany
A1 Team Germany started the third round of the A1 Grand Prix Series at Estoril at the very front of the field. As early as in the first free practice session the team managed by Willi Weber achieved the second-fastest time on the Portugese Grand Prix circuit to set a new Friday record in the team's merely three-month history. Adrian Sutil from Gräfelfing in the cockpit of the 520-hp A1 Grand Prix racer was clocked at 1m33.700s and thus the second-quickest driver in the field of 24 nations participating in the event.
While the track was damp at the beginning of the first session, then drying off, rain setting in during the second free practice again created difficult conditions, resulting in lap times that were 20 seconds slower than those achieved before. For tactical reasons, A1 Team Germany decided to complete a few laps only towards the end.
"The times in the first practice session make me feel confident. In the second session in the rain we only went out for the last fifteen minutes because we wanted to save the limited number of wet tyres for Saturday when it's supposed to rain again," commented Adrian Sutil, who was nominated for the first time by A1 Team Germany as the driver for the entire race weekend. Having driven merely five laps in the second test, the 22-year-old rookie driver clocked a time of 1m55.483s to finish in ninth place. "I'm not completely satisfied with my braking points yet. We also worked on the set-up and changed the car's ride height. Of course I want to try and repeat my performance from the first practice session on a circuit that may be wet."
Britain
It didn't just rain – it poured in Portugal for day one of the three day A1 Grand Prix event. Four practice sessions were held – two more than usual to give teams with a new second car a chance to shake t down. This included Robbie Kerr in the A1Team.GBR car two. The original plan was for Alex Lloyd to drive the first stint but the adverse weather conditions led to Team Principal John Surtees changing the plan to give Kerr the opportunity of a wet test in case it dried in the afternoon. Robbie had always been planned to qualify and race. The shakedown went well with the car's performance gradually improving throughout the day.
Earlier in the day the team did their bit for the Jubilee Sailing Trust which is marking the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar by selling eye patches to raise money. The organization gives people the opportunity to experience life at sea and the importance of team spirit on tall ships. John Surtees posed for pictures with the drivers and car wearing the official ‘Eye Patch Day' patches.
Robbie Kerr "Obviously it would have been better to have been quicker out there on the track but it was a bit of a lottery with the variable conditions. I'm OK about how it's gone but will be happier when we get some faster times in tomorrow."
Canada
All of the four practice sessions today were held in various degrees of wet. Two additional unofficial stints were available to the team to shakedown the new car that the team will be running in Portugal this weekend with another practice session tomorrow morning before qualifying tomorrow afternoon.
Sean McIntosh: "I haven't raced here but my 30 laps in an F3 car has helped a bit – but it was sunny – nothing like today. It helped considerably when we went out in the rain - at least I knew kind of which way the track went. I learned a bit about what corner speeds we'll need. You can't really get a good read on where everyone will be with these conditions. With the wets we were one of the quickest out there but on the drying track we put slicks on a lap or two early. Overall I think it'll be a good weekend and we need to keep learning. We got data on wet and damp conditions so we're making progress.
"I'm getting the hang of the one lap system for tomorrow's qualifying. When I went out on the new tyres I went quickly right away. I think it's something you get better with by practicing. We should have a good set up for either condition. We should be able to put on another good show for the folks back home. The word is spreading through Canada – the real Motorsport fans are following and more people are noticing now that it's on the web."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon were greeted by the typical unpredictable weather conditions of Estoril today for the first day of practice in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Portugal. Basil Shaaban is set to drive throughout the weekend, returning to the car after sitting out the German round of the Series while team mate Khalil Beschir took the wheel. In the first of the two official practice sessions Shaaban posted 20th fastest time and in the second session 23rd quickest in appalling weather conditions.
Shaaban was able to gain valuable test mileage in two additional all-team testing sessions in the morning, although the changing conditions challenged all the drivers, with a drying circuit forcing teams to continually change car set up to suit the track. After the sessions Shaaban was positive for tomorrow, saying, "It's been a difficult day with the changing weather. No two laps were the same and the red flags were flying regularly which made it difficult to find a good rhythm. We'll review the data tonight and we should be able to make some improvements for tomorrow."
Martin Dixon, A1 Team Lebanon Team Manager, adds, "It's not easy for Basil to get back on the pace after a few weeks out of the car – we have to remember he hasn't driven since the first day of practice at Brands Hatch nearly one month ago. We spent most of our sessions on wet set up, so we didn't optimise the car for the drying track in the late afternoon. This type of weather, when it's raining hard one minute, light rain the next makes it a challenge for the drivers and engineers to get the best out of the car.Many more experienced drivers than Basil left the track on numerous occasions.
India
On Friday morning, the event organizers had arranged for two "shakedown" sessions of 40 minutes each, to allow teams, who have taken delivery of their spare chassis to run their cars and sort out any problems that invariably affect race cars when they are new and "out of the box". The weather has not been very kind as it has been raining since 7 o'clock in the morning. Hence the track was very wet and slippery. However, tomorrow and Sunday are expected to be dry. For A1 Team India Armaan Ebrahim was slated to do the driving duties. He managed to do only three laps as the cars throttle jammed. The team replaced the throttle cable for the second "shakedown" session, but to no avail. The problem still persisted and therefore the team decided to revert to their original race car for the three official practice sessions, two on Friday afternoon and the third on Saturday morning.
Unfortunately, the skies opened up and both the official practice sessions were run in full wet conditions. The game plan for young Armaan was to keep the car on the track and make up for the two missed practice sessions in the morning and learn the track as much as possible in the very trying wet conditions. It was no easy task for a youngster to handle a big car in treacherous conditions, but Armaan stuck to the teams game plan and slowly built up his confidence, and before the last 5 minutes of session two was upto 17th place in the timesheets. The last 5 minutes were lost due to a mechanical problem at the rear which spun the car round at the hairpin. Armaan managed to bring the car back to the pits, but could not go out again as the car could not get fixed in the extremely short period of time left in the session..
A1 India is definitely looking for a better result tomorrow in the final official practice session. We hope to approach the qualifying sessions with Armaan more at ease with the car, and are hopeful of being in the top 15, which will be a wonderful opener for A1 Team India.
An enthusiastic Mr. Atul Gupta, Chairman of A1 Team India, was very encouraged by the teams' performance so far this weekend. He commented, "The hard work and motivation shown by each and every member of A1 Team India over the weekend makes me truly believe in the potential of this team. The engineers and mechanics have been at the track at the crack of dawn every morning and leave the circuit late every night. I am very confident that their dedication and desire to succeed will help A1 Team India to progress race by race, until we are fighting for top honours in future races."
New Zealand
Constant rain has severely disrupted the first day of practice for Sunday's A1 Grand Prix in Estoril, Portugal.
New Zealand was 12th fastest in the first practice session and ended the day well down the field, 17th fastest, in preparation for Round 3 of the World Cup of Motorsport. But A1 Team.NZL chief executive Bob McMurray says the time was immaterial given the wet conditions.
"It wasn't a pleasant day and we achieved nothing apart from keeping the car in one piece," McMurray said.
"It was essentially a competition to see who could spin out gracefully with the least amount of damage to the car!
"Everyone spun out at some point. There were cars in the kitty litter all the time."
Jonny Reid got in one lap before finding himself in the infield. Matt Halliday, who will drive for the rest of the weekend, also found himself off the track a few times.
McMurray says showers are forecast for the entire weekend, leaving the team with plenty of work to do for tomorrow's final practice and Qualifying Session, plus Sunday's two races.
"If it continues to be wet we have a hard road ahead because the set up isn't right. We're going to have to trial a variety of settings to ensure we can handle the slick track and still be competitive."
China
Friday morning shower washed the track of Estoril circuit, wet and slippery, but it did not affect 24 national drivers to test their cars in two 40-minute-long test sessions. A1 Team China got a shinny new car to replace damaged one in Eurospeedway. Team China Engineers told Jiang Tengyi to drive the new car for one lap to test different parts in the first test session (around 10.00am). Engineers then started necessary adjustments before afternoon's official practice. 11.00am, Jiang got chance to drive the car on the track in the second test session for only 7 laps to make sure if the car is ready to run. All team members took their noon break time in the garage to figure out each tiny problem during test sessions.
The weather got even worse in the afternoon Official practice. Jiang Tengyi was told to get use to this new car on the track, especially under this condition. Jiang cautiously drove 8 laps near the end of the first Official Practice. He said: "There are definitely a lot of works to do for this new car, but I am very confident to drive it for tomorrow's races." Working with engineers, Jiang was trying to give them every piece of information he got on the track. In the second Official Practice, Jiang made 10 laps, and the best lap time was 2'02.105 before the end of the session (17.25pm).
Mr. Chen ZhenHuan, A1 Team China Leader said after two Official Practices: "We are trying to collect every piece of information about this A1 car and hopefully in the following races, we can get every new car ready in the shortest time. Then we can have more time to practice and eventually get better results." Mr. Chang from A1 Team China also mentioned:" Team work plays important role in the motor racing industry, A1 Team China and their support team Astromega are working together very well, under this circumstance, we are looking for better performance of A1 Team China in Portugal."
Mexico
Mexican Salvador Duran participated in the first day of activities for A1 Grand Prix Round 3, which is held on the 4.36-Km. circuit of the Autodrome of Estoril, in Portugal.
"At the beginning we did well and we even were able to be fifth, afterwards we had transmission problems. It was failing in the third sector and in the second session we just did a couple of laps. We're working on fixing the car and we're optimistic that we will be able to score a good result in qualifying. Also, we have a few sets of new tyres available, because we used the used ones in practices, and that's going to be an advantage," Telmex-backed driver Salvador Duran said.
"We hope to have a car in great conditions for qualifying and achieve a good spot in the starting grid," Duran said.
Malaysia
The unpredictable weather of Estoril circuit, Portugal played a major part in the fortunes of many A1 teams today including A1 Team Malaysia.
The first practice session featured a drying track with ever-changing conditions which challenged drivers to find the best set up. Fairuz Fauzy, driving for A1 Team Malaysia this weekend, posted tenth fastest time in the first practice session, and eleventh in the second session.
Fairuz returned to the driving seat for A1 Team Malaysia after sitting out the Germany round to team mate Alex Yoong and the opening day of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Portugal was his first experience of the Estoril circuit.
An additional two all-team testing sessions in the morning benefited Fairuz as he prepared for the weekend. With ninth fastest time in first practice and eighth quickest in the second session, Fairuz was straight on the pace for both wet weather periods.
The young Malaysian was satisfied with his performance on the opening day of the weekend, but looking to improve on his times tomorrow, saying, "The car was in good shape this morning, but the weather was very unpredictable. Our car was good in the wet, but we need to work on our dry weather set up tomorrow - in the hopes that the qualifying and race will be dry! If qualifying is in the wet, we should be well placed for a good grid position, but if it is in the dry, it might be a different story and so we need to find a solution to that this morning."
Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, was pleased with Fairuz's opening day performance in Portugal, commenting, "We've had a good day today in a very wet Portugal. Fairuz, who hasn't been in the car for a few weeks, got on the pace very quickly this morning in testing and has driven consistently well in the two practice sessions. We now need to build on this good start and make improvements for tomorrow."