A1GP comes to Sepang, Malaysia
Today is the start of the Malaysian A1GP weekend at Sepang.
Malaysia will be Round 5 of the 12 round "winter" racing series - the Racing World Cup of Nations.
It is quite a unique concept which harks back to the the pre-war Grands Prix series (precursor to F1) where (usually European) nations would have an entry with their own manufacturers to battle each other in the premier racing series. Those days, the teams would run in national colours - although those colours have somewhat changed in the modern day A1GP series (eg - Italy was red in the early days and now blue - the azzuris; and Germany was silver, but now follows their national football team colours).
Still the concept is a cool concept and for A1GP to race in the "F1 winter" offers racing fans something to follow when F1 is taking its long break.
As for Team Malaysia, this is really our first time in the motorsports world stage and as such the challenge for Team Malaysia is really getting quickly up to speed with the racing culture, the commitments to deliver results, the teamworking, the technology, the psychology, the PR and everything else.
Against popular opinion, Team Malaysia has done ourselves proud by being fairly competitive. Yes, there are teething issues, yes there is a hint of lack of experience, but being joint 9th and 9 pts off from 4th place after 5 rounds is pretty good. And this is on merit mind you - as Malaysia has constantly qualified within the top 10, and both Alex & Fairuz has done great things to improve on those grid positions. Alex was even up to 2nd in the main race in Germany during the early stages!
So things are looking up for Team Malaysia and hopefully they (we) can build on this momentum and continue to improve and catch the leading bunch of France, Brasil and Switzerland.
So Friday will see Team Malaysia putting the A1GP car thru its paces and hopefully both Alex and Fairuz can use a bit of local track knowledge to push the Team further up the ranks. If weather becomes a factor, let's hope that it brings Team Malaysia a positive change.
So go Team Malaysia. TheFazz and my-KART are supporting you!
by TheFazz on 18 Nov 05 at 0820 hours
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Comments
TheFazz | A1GP comes to Sepang,
As of free practice 1 & 2, Malaysia is solidly in the top ten position courtesy of Fairuz Fauwzy. Looking good so far.
simon | race write up
please share what happened at the race proper. How was the sound of these A1 cars ? similar to that of F3000s' ? F1 ?
I miss the smell and sounds.
TheFazz | Race report
For one the cars looked much better than it does on TV. In terms of sound - nothing like F1 of course. They weren't quite the screamers that the F1 cars are. The sounds are a little gutteral, and don't sound too great when at low revs... much like the F1 cars when the limiter is used.
As for the race, I caught most of it on TV with some views of the last turn and turn 4, 5 & 6.
The race was incredible and for once in A1GP not interupted by the safety car. So in effect we had racing right from start to finish. The Racing For Malaysia Blog has a full account of the race. But from my perspective I enjoyed the many side-by-side and bumper to bumper racing with many passes and repasses. Excellent stuff. Turns 4-6 was spectacular with the cars going thru the left and rights at full speed and very close to each other. Sepang is an excellent track for A1GP offerring many overtaking places.
Current opinions are very positive. I personally enjoyed the race that Alex Yoong drove. Towards the end you could visibly see that the tyre grip was very low and I saw Alex going sideways several times in his chase of New Zealand whom he overtook on the last lap to the cheers from the Malaysian fans. The most heartwarming sight of the day was to see Alex and Fairuz climb on the pitlane fence to wave to the fans. And amazingly for once, I felt that the chants of "Malaysia Boleh" was very well deserved. Picture of the day: http://www.pitstop.com.my/news/images/2111051401-S.jpg
Kudos to Team Malaysia! Other discussions of the Sepang A1GP event at AtlasF1 and Pitstop.