Brands Hatch thread

[Kiwi3]

Aarom Lim confirmed for Malaysia since Fauzy is unavailable. He is not very experienced so he will be up against it, good luck young man!

[diabloA1]

He worked very closely with Fauzy and the race engineer this season and this would have benefitted him a lot.

Although he has been unable to race in a proper race series he did surprise everyone in FV6 Asia in Sentul in 2007 by winning in his debut with a back end team. Of course that was an Asian series.

Indeed, Brands is a difficult circuit for him to make his debut but lets hope for the best for him

[Kiwi3]

Curious if those of you in the UK have noticed much promotion for this year (or any)? What is the expectation regarding crowds? Perhaps Ireland's success and the GBR turmoil will change the colour of the crowd (i.e less blue and red, more green)?

[strider]

I'm too far away from Brands Hatch to know if the promotion is up to MSV's usual high standards, but I suspect not.

The vibes I'm getting about the meeting are simply not good. There's a lot of preparatory work to be done before a meeting like this and, from what I've heard, it's just not happening due to what has increasingly become the familiar reason.

[Elio]

As a season-pass holder at Brands for the last umpteen years, I would certainly say that it is very "quiet" this year on the A1 front. I wouldn`t notice any promotion on the TV or radio anyway, cos I don`t listen to, or watch, where promotions would be being placed. However, simply on the grounds of motorsport press ads, and even stories on the MSV website, it seems much lower key than it has been before.

None of the crowds have ever been a patch on what they were for the first one.

[Tyrrell]

Hey, c'mon these latest comments are unfair. If you are too far away to know then why comment at all?

Personally I have seen television adverts by both MSV and by Sky Sports (Qualifying and the race live on SKY 1 and not the usual Sports channels remember folks). I've also seen nice full page adverts in Autosport magazine over recent weeks and I know that the local papers to Brands Hatch have also been doing features lately on A1GP.

It does annoy when all I read ahead of meetings this season is doom, doom, doom. Hell, we are in a recession and of course things are tough but hats off to A1GP, we are still here and we've got exciting things to look forward to. So come on everybody and lighten up.

[Elio]

I don`t need to be "advertised-at" to know whether there is a clubby at Brands, let alone A1 (been going too many years now), so I`m not professing to know tooooo much about how heavily this is being marketed.

All I would say, in my own personal opinion, is that in previous years I have felt as if I was having A1 rammed down my throat in the weeks and months leading up to the event! Personally, this year, I haven`t felt this at all. Maybe it is approaching in a lower-key manner this year, or maybe it`s just a case of it being a "regular" annual event and I`m just getting used to it!!

I`m certainly not trying to knock it in any way. It`s not exactly my favourite event of the year, but it makes a change to have the odd International breaking-up the clubbies.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Tyrrell

Hey, c'mon these latest comments are unfair. If you are too far away to know then why comment at all?

Please read the posts immediately before and after your own and you may understand.

Don't me wrong either. I very much want Brands to go ahead and be as big a success as usual. I'm sure MSV do, too. I was simply giving my own reply to Kiwi3's question. I shall be very happy if events prove me to have been mistaken.

[White flag man]

There's a full page article in the London Metro (paper) today. Not that it's much use to people living in Maidstone

[Suze]

I work just under 15 miles from Brands and not seen anything around here nor on TV / radio, but don't live in this area so may have missed it. Certainly previously when I was working in London, they had ads in the free papers [London Paper, London Lite, Metro etc] and the Metro used to have articles with Team GB. There was a Team GB photoshoot thing by Tower Bridge too which was right by my old office so did see quite a lot of promotion - presume that was around the Brands race time, but can't actually remember!

[RichardRenes]

I am quite sure that was for Brands Hatch 2007

[littleman]

A1GP is the self styled World Cup of Motorsport, so why would I want to go and support Team GBR, at their "home game", knowing full well that Dan Clarke isn't very good and is only in the car cus he's paid for the drive?

Would I want to watch the England football team play, knowing they had some rubbish bloke as a striker,just because he'd parted with alot of money to where the jersey? I don't think so!

If Team GBR and Brands Hatch want the UK race to be taken seriously,they could at least put a decent driver in the car for their home event.

[Kiwi3]

Fair comment, although in reality the series needs to grow over time to the point where the best drivers from each country (at least outside F1) want to be involved. It is unrealistic that A1GP could achieve that within 5 years. That said, there are plenty of British drivers outside F1 that are better than Clarke. Fortunately up until now we've seen some good ones.

I don't understand the "self styled" bit. The Olympics are "self syled" by the IOC, the World Cup is "self styled" by FIFA, and F1 is "self styled" by the FIA and FOM. What isn't "self styled"?

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by littleman

A1GP is the self styled World Cup of Motorsport, so why would I want to go and support Team GBR, at their "home game", knowing full well that Dan Clarke isn't very good and is only in the car cus he's paid for the drive?

Would I want to watch the England football team play, knowing they had some rubbish bloke as a striker,just because he'd parted with alot of money to where the jersey? I don't think so!

If Team GBR and Brands Hatch want the UK race to be taken seriously,they could at least put a decent driver in the car for their home event.

Very well put littleman, GBR have the potential to win this weekend if they use their best "strikers" Watts, Kerr, Jarvis etc given their immense track knowledge. Will they use their experienced pit crew or share A1's crew with Germany again. Sadly it seems they will only be there to make up the no's. The top running teams must be relieved not to have to compete with one of the afore mentioned trio.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by littleman

A1GP is the self styled World Cup of Motorsport, so why would I want to go and support Team GBR, at their "home game", knowing full well that Dan Clarke isn't very good and is only in the car cus he's paid for the drive?

Agree littleman, we've thought about going as Brands is only half an hour away and my OH has never seen A1GP or a meeting on the GP circuit but it would be good to see a competitive Team GBR at the home race. We've come to the conclusion that, for the price of the tickets [£58] and the other factors, it's probably not worth it.

[Kiwi3]

Hildebrand in for Team USA. He just won the IndyLights race at Long Beach so can't be too bad, but I still wish Summerton was in the car.

It was known ages ago that Andretti would not be available, however a weird excuse has been given. It's three days before the first practice session for the Indy 500. THREE DAYS before a practice session. The Andrettis do know that we have jet airplanes these days...?

[Thundersports]

Originally Posted by Suze

Agree littleman, we've thought about going as Brands is only half an hour away and my OH has never seen A1GP or a meeting on the GP circuit but it would be good to see a competitive Team GBR at the home race. We've come to the conclusion that, for the price of the tickets [£58] and the other factors, it's probably not worth it.

Myself and her indoors have attended all 3 previous rounds and I don't expect to be going this time main reasons as in previous posts ie crap GBR driver, cars not as fast or exciting to watch as the previous Lola.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

The Andrettis do know that we have jet airplanes these days...?

When Michael was in F1 with McLaren, one of the criticisms of him was he was never around because he used to commute from and back to the States by Concorde whenever possible.

So, yes, they do know about the air travel option.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by strider

When Michael was in F1 with McLaren, one of the criticisms of him was he was never around because he used to commute from and back to the States by Concorde whenever possible.

So, yes, they do know about the air travel option.

But surely now that Concorde is no more they have to allow a day to get through Heathrow, a day for the flight and a day to get through US immigration. See? No recovery time.

It's not like everyone used to participate in multiple disciplines and commute back and forth across the Atlantic to earn a crust in the old days is it, so why should they have to do it now?

Oh, er, hang on, um, they did do a bit of that didn't they. I guess Mario would remember.


Hmm.

[littleman]

I'm led to believe Dan Clarke is paying £25k per race weekend.What annoys me is the cheapest race day ticket is £29, so MSV only need another 863 paying spectators to generate this amount of additional income.They could have used this additional money to support Team GBR so they could then select a driver who actually stands a chance of winning.That alone would put 863 extra spectators on the gate!

Kerr and Jarvis will never drive for Team GBR again, so put Watts in the car - just like he is on all the advertising posters!!!

[Kebab]

Absolutely agree Littleman, I dont know what mess A1 and/or GBR is in but they don't appear to be using simple commercial logic here.

GBR has 'sold out' (again) for next to nothing (if the £25k is true) and alienated its most loyal followers in the process.

Maybe they just don't care anymore, it seems like it.

[Elio]

It really is a revelation, dipping into the world of the A1GP forum!! I`ve never visited here before, and am comprehensively gobsmacked that people actually base their decision on whether they go to a Motorsport event, on their own perceived quality of one driver of one "Nations" car!! How thoroughly odd!! I think I may leave and not venture here again, I find it all rather strange!!!

[Monkey Head]

Btw will it be the final race of the season if Flu virus in Mexico can not be solved in a month?

[RichardRenes]

Originally Posted by Elio

It really is a revelation, dipping into the world of the A1GP forum!! I`ve never visited here before, and am comprehensively gobsmacked that people actually base their decision on whether they go to a Motorsport event, on their own perceived quality of one driver of one "Nations" car!! How thoroughly odd!! I think I may leave and not venture here again, I find it all rather strange!!!

As a Dutchman I agree. Now is the time your team needs YOU most!!! Lord forbid if us Dutch thought the same at Zandvoort in 2006... The series wouldn't have survived I am sure.

So for the pride of your nation: go there and support your team!!!!!!!!!

[strider]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

As a Dutchman I agree. Now is the time your team needs YOU most!!! Lord forbid if us Dutch thought the same at Zandvoort in 2006... The series wouldn't have survived I am sure.

So for the pride of your nation: go there and support your team!!!!!!!!!

If you're referring to the time when Jos Verstappen walked out, Richard, the difference is that at least you still had the same excellent team and I wasn't surprised that Jeroen Bleekemolen proved to be a good replacement driver.