A1 Bankrupt!

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

Hmm... I am sure I have pics somewhere of the 3 years a1 went to zandvoort. 100.000 spectators on average over the 3 years.

one country is'nt enough to support an international series.

And even in Holland TV ratings dropped after season 1.

and if Holland had a F1 race A1 would'nt have as many spectators.

[csirl]

I think the nation v nation concept worked. The A1 failures are more down to the management of the series than the concept.

[steve nielsen]

I think there also where to many unknown drivers, if you want it to be the world cup you need the best drivers in the world.

[ASRoma]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

The nation vs nation concept was/ is working. No doubt about that.. If anything, the first race at Zandvoort was the definite proof of the concept.. The big error made was wrong people in key spots of the organisation and the Ferrari deal.. Zytek and Lola would have been perfectly able to bring the old car to the same specs of the new car. The old A1GP 3.4 litre Zytek engine had at least 100 hp still in it and Lola could have come up with a good high downforce car easily.

The lure of Ferrari simply was too big and A1 took the bait.

I agree with you.

For sure A1 needed a more performant car close to F1 performances to get he status of a "professional" series.

But the development and cost of the ferrari car has been ridiculous.

During season three, Lola and Zytek made a proposal to update the cars. They would have changed the engines to the lmp1 engine, which has about 750 hp with no restrictors, and lola was supposed to deliver an aero packae worth 4 seconds a lap. The total cost of that would have been around 100'000 euros per car for around 6 seconds per lap, and this is without changing tyres...

The should have rather spent 3 millions in this than get the ferrari deal...

[Mak]

Originally Posted by ASRoma

I agree with you.

For sure A1 needed a more performant car close to F1 performances to get he status of a "professional" series.

But the development and cost of the ferrari car has been ridiculous.

During season three, Lola and Zytek made a proposal to update the cars. They would have changed the engines to the lmp1 engine, which has about 750 hp with no restrictors, and lola was supposed to deliver an aero packae worth 4 seconds a lap. The total cost of that would have been around 100'000 euros per car for around 6 seconds per lap, and this is without changing tyres...

The should have rather spent 3 millions in this than get the ferrari deal...

Was not the development or cost of new chassis (which was not Ferrari) or engines that sunk the ship. It was the stupid naming rights which killed A1 and TT's ego to have Ferrari badged on his shirt!! Series should have gone on with zytek engines/support and even the new chassis would not have caused a problem. This to would have come inside the 3 mill. Another year as it was would have been best to continue its development and actually prove it could make a profit and build up tv coverage and support. TOO LATE NOW!!!1

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

The nation vs nation concept was/ is working. No doubt about that.. If anything, the first race at Zandvoort was the definite proof of the concept..

No, imo the race at Zandvoort proved that you can sell out an event if you go race at a venue where the locals are motorsportfans (tens of thousands of dutch people went to the belgium gp the years before) and you bring local heroes (Hello Jos Verstappen and Jan Lammers) and have a big tv-network (rtl) promoting their broadcast.

A1 went to Germany and it was no succes. I'm absolutely certain i can promote a succesfull event in Germany if Schumacher is added to the race.

Originally Posted by Mak

Was not the development or cost of new chassis (which was not Ferrari) or engines that sunk the ship. It was the stupid naming rights which killed A1 and TT's ego to have Ferrari badged on his shirt!! Series should have gone on with zytek engines/support and even the new chassis would not have caused a problem. This to would have come inside the 3 mill. Another year as it was would have been best to continue its development and actually prove it could make a profit and build up tv coverage and support. TOO LATE NOW!!!1

Even worse, A1 actually payed a huge premium (not just a couple of million, way more) just to have the Ferrari name, even though many car manufacturers actually pay racingseries mega-$ just to have their name on the engine cover (see Honda in Indycar).

[Asa]

I think A1 would work because it was running in countries or regions where F1 is not held, at time when F1 is having its winter break.

Places like South Africa, Mexico, New Zealand, Holland, Zhuhai, Brands Hatch, Indonesia, Dubai...etc. I thought that was the concept. Top class single seater racing that markets itself away from F1. If it had stuck to it then it would have survived.

I think A1's team and driver concept is really weak also. OK, it is about which country is best, but even in the World Cup (football), there is a Golden Ball for the best player and a Golden Boot for the top scorer and fans love these individual awards.

Every sport needs a personality, F1 is Schumacher, Golf is Tiger Woods, Soccer is Messi, Basketball is Kobe Bryant, Rallying is Loeb, MotoGP is Rossi...etc. A1GP has no face/personality.

The driver who scored the most points in a season should be given a Golden Wheel or something, then maybe another award for a driver who makes the most overtaking moves, Golden Gloves?

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by Asa

Golden Gloves?

Golden Throttle pedal?

Because I see conspiracy theories everywhere I can't help but remember who introduced A1GP to Ferrari in the first place....
The grey dwarf is clever enough to have worked this from behind the scenes and used TT's own stupidity against him, and in the process make sure A1GP never becomes a worthy compettitor to the holy Grand Prix series of his...

TT was very stupid to turn what could've been a great winter series (Tasman Trophy for the 00's anyone?) into a bankrupt pile of nothingness...but I can't help but see someone behind the scenes jacking up the price for engines etc and manipulating everything to remove potential competittion before it properly arose.

Still, I believe any single seater that races in the northern hemisphere's winter should be sucessful just because of the lack of the compettition out there from November-March. Even the Australasian series (NZ/Aussie V8 Supercars, various F3 championships, etc) race through their winter so there is almost literally nothing else on.

Maybe Himself wanted that particular idea for the GP2 Asia/Speedcar package, but that didn't exactly set the world on fire either....

[Mak]

Originally Posted by codename_47

Golden Throttle pedal?

Because I see conspiracy theories everywhere I can't help but remember who introduced A1GP to Ferrari in the first place....
The grey dwarf is clever enough to have worked this from behind the scenes and used TT's own stupidity against him, and in the process make sure A1GP never becomes a worthy compettitor to the holy Grand Prix series of his...

TT was very stupid to turn what could've been a great winter series (Tasman Trophy for the 00's anyone?) into a bankrupt pile of nothingness...but I can't help but see someone behind the scenes jacking up the price for engines etc and manipulating everything to remove potential competittion before it properly arose.

Still, I believe any single seater that races in the northern hemisphere's winter should be sucessful just because of the lack of the compettition out there from November-March. Even the Australasian series (NZ/Aussie V8 Supercars, various F3 championships, etc) race through their winter so there is almost literally nothing else on.

Maybe Himself wanted that particular idea for the GP2 Asia/Speedcar package, but that didn't exactly set the world on fire either....

Nice theory, but I think TT managed to screw this one up all on his own..

[Armco Bender]

Another problem of course with a world series for TV is of course while one half of the world is at the races,the other half is asleep,we had good TV coverage here but it was on at 2-4am on a Monday morning.

[JagtechOhio]

10-4, I think that is the most logical argument against IndyCar's plan to race in China. Unless the sanction fee is huge and the sponsors do business there, the hit you take on exposure is not worth disrupting the schedule.

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

Another problem of course with a world series for TV is of course while one half of the world is at the races,the other half is asleep,we had good TV coverage here but it was on at 2-4am on a Monday morning.

Asia, Austaralia and NZ are ahead so it would be late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, so not so bad... Mexico, Americas behind.

[Mekola]

Well, it's known that (specially South) Americans have to suffer that all Eastern Asia and Oceania races will be shown at late night on hours like 2AM or 4AM. It seems that motorsport doesn't consider us as well as Europeans.

[JagtechOhio]

Hi Mekola,

Have you ever been to Curitiba in Brazil?

Thanks, Andy

[Mekola]

Nope.

[markw63]

After the recent quiet spell is there anymore info on whether A1 is now officially dead or will it re-surface?

Does anyone know what is happening with the new factory they were/are building at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal?
One of the operations guys said it was underway at the beginning of this year but i never saw anything being built on my last couple of visits.

[rychard]

Mark, I've been trying to get info on that.

But get this, I was told all the old xars were stored at the new facility .... but someone else (quite close to A1) told me A1GP owns nothing near the track.

[dave not neil]

Old cars were held near to Oxford I believe, and the current cars at Dunsfold.

[markw63]

I am a regular to the area with some work interest there, i havent seen anything around the track other than the residential building work. I was told by someone well up in the organization that physical work had started!

[Francis Albert]

The last thing I heard about that, form someone who should know what is going on, was that it was indeed their plan to move to the track in Portimão but that it would not be going ahead for a year or two.

This was early in the summer though, and as we all know a few things have changed since then...

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by dave not neil

Old cars were held near to Oxford I believe, and the current cars at Dunsfold.

Aren't the old cars now in the hands of Auto GP/Euroseries 3000?

[dave not neil]

Not all of them.

[Matt]

So most of the current cars are held perilously close to the Top Gear studios.

[Juarez Jed]

They would certainly liven up the celebrity challenge.....if they had engines

[steve nielsen]

And the latest news: IMG has already pulled out of A1GP:

http://a1.gpgrid.com/2009/12/08/img-...arketing-deal/