To paraphrase the great Mark Twain, rumors of A1GP's death been greatly exaggerated. Or at least that's the way it appeared a couple of weeks ago when the self-styled World Cup of Motorsport announced a 19-strong entry list for its season opener at Surfers Paradise on Australia's Gold Coast, scheduled for October 25.
The international open-wheel racing series has been teetering on the brink of collapse for several months now. The spec racer developed for the series by Ferrari had to go back to the drawing board several times, with the FIA most recently deeming the cars unfit to race and reportedly ordering significant modifications that series organizers were incapable of carrying out before the opening round of the 2009-10 season.
Technical issues aside, however, A1GP appears to be in serious financial difficulties. Following earlier reports that the series had gone into bankruptcy, the latest word is that the organizers owe money all over, now resulting in the logistics company contracted to ship the cars to races around the world holding the cars as ransom for payment, while Ferrari has reportedly demanded the series return the engines it ordered due to lack of payment. Whatever the problem, A1GP has had to cancel the race in Surfers Paradise, but insists that the remainder of the off-season season is still a go. We'll just have to sit tight and see if they can sort out their financial and technical problems before they have to cancel the second round in China, currently scheduled for November 15.
It was an ambitious target to design, develop, shake down and launch an all-new spec car across the series in less than a full year, but that's what the organizers of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport set out to do. Unfortunately, the first major setback inevitably meant that the series would have to be postponed, and that's just what happened. The new car has been under development with Ferrari for the past ten months or so – based on Ferrari's Formula One racing car design – and things had been going well. However, when test driver Patrick Friesacher was injured after a vital suspension component failed, it was back to the drawing board. The delay means that the start of the fourth season, which was originally scheduled for September 21 at the Mugello track in Italy, will now be pushed back to Zandvoort, Holland, for October 4, which was initially planned as the second race of the season.
What you see above is the first rendering released of the upcoming spec racer that Ferrari is designing for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. If it looks familiar to racing fans, it should: the new car is based heavily on the Scuderia Ferrari F2004 grand prix car, which is a good place to start. The F2004 took the checkered flag at a dominant 15 out of 18 races in its epynumerous Formula One season, taking both the world championships (drivers and constructors), making it one of the most successful racing cars of all time.
We initially brought you news of the contract back in October '07, when at first it looked like Ferrari would "merely" supply the engines for the cars, later becoming evident that Ferrari was overseeing the entire design process as well, in conjunction with A1GP's own technicians. Instead of the V10 that powered the F2004, the new A1GP car will use a Ferrari-sourced V8 producing around 600 horsepower. The monoposto is scheduled to run its first laps this coming Friday, when we can expect A1GP to release some new images and data on the car that its teams campaign starting next season. Follow the jump for the press release.
Car vs. Jet. It's an epic battle that never seems to end, with new contenders continuously lining up on the runway. And we love it. Top Gear raced a Bugatti Veyron down the runway and back against a Eurofighter, Lamborghini pitted its jet-inspired Reventon against a Tornado, Audi raced its Le Mans-winning R10 TDI against an RAF Harrier jump-yet at Goodwood and Spyker F1 faced off against a Royal Dutch Air Force F16 fighter. (Volkswagen even pulled a 747 jumbo jet with a Touareg V10 TDI.) Now meet the latest challengers: "Black Beauty", Team New Zealand's Zytek-powered Lola A1GP race car, against an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200ER.
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A1GP has announced that its upcoming race in New Zealand will mark the inauguration of the series' switch to E30 Hiperflo ethanol-gasoline blend, which, as organizers point out, cuts CO2 emissions by 21% and, of course, reduces the use of fossil fuels. The mixture is specially made for use in A1GP and consists of 30% ethanol and 70% gasoline. While IndyCars and Champ Cars have run on methanol since the '60s, both series are based in the US and have to ship their fuel to fewer races abroad than A1GP.
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