A1GP British GP

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Famine
You're ever-so-slightly delusional now.

The A1GP Team Ireland boss says "After F1, we are the quickest things out there."

One of the A1GP Team Malaysia drivers says "This is the fastest car I have ever driven."

A1GP cars have a power-to-weight ratio of 867hp/tonne (881hp/ton), without using their boost (which only comes in at speeds over 60km/h anyway) and, though no official figures exist, this makes for ballpark 3.0-3.3s 0-60mph times. The FQ-400, aided by 4WD, manages 3.5s and can't average 108mph round Brands (that's 10mph faster than the fastest single-make race series - Porsche Cup - can manage and more than 8s faster than any GT car).


A1GP cars only seem slow when paired up to F1 cars. But then most things shy of Eurofighter seem slow when paired up to F1 cars.
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Hold up. Arent there some kinf of american series with 900hp and weigh about 600KG. And also the newly forming senior F1 will be fatser than A1s aswell.
 
In the case of IRL (or whatever the hell they're called these days), you're right. On the oval, they fly - 220mph+.

However, take them onto the circuit...

2005 - St. Petersburg fastest lap average 103.4mph
2005 - Infineon Raceway fastest lap average 107.6mph

And A1?

2005 - Brands Hatch fastest lap average 125.8mph
2005 - Lausitz Eurospeedway fastest lap average 107.7mph


I do wonder what would happen with IRL and A1 cars on the same track. A1 seem to have grip and braking abilities far beyond the raw power figures might lead you to believe.

(Incidentally, I got my figures wrong earlier - I posted the Lausitz average lap instead of the Brands one - meaning that A1 cars are actually 27mph faster than Porsche Cup cars)
 
Its just that after watching F1 for so long and then A1 the gap is too big. Atleast when you watch F1 the minardis still look like their going fast even though most of the time theyre about 3 secs a lap slower.
 
Yep - but they really aren't slow. The data bears that out - though they aren't quite as fast yet as they're supposed to be.

You forget that this is mostly funded by one man - Sheikh Makhtoum. He's rich, yes, but not thick. I doubt the development costs for the A1 car cost more than £10-£20 million - which isn't enough to buy a season in F1. How much would he have had to pay out for an F1-spec car to be designed and researched (and made significantly different enough from F1 cars that the teams or Bernie didn't sue) and THEN bought 50 of (2 per team, 25 teams)?

Buy 50 F1 cars? Bugger off!

I don't doubt that once the series becomes established, and the money starts rolling in for A1GP, car design will be improved upon on a season-by-season basis. But they're always going to be slower than F1 simply because of budgets and the fact that F1 teams all have different cars and all want better ones than their rivals. Which is also budget-related.


What would be funny is seeing F1 drivers in their off-seasons (now) guesting in A1 races and being spanked raw by Will Power, Robbie Kerr and Adam Khan...
 
Just for comparison, the F1 cars managed an average of 130.8mph for Kimi's fastest lap at Shanghai today...
 
Famine
In the case of IRL (or whatever the hell they're called these days), you're right. On the oval, they fly - 220mph+.

However, take them onto the circuit...

2005 - St. Petersburg fastest lap average 103.4mph
2005 - Infineon Raceway fastest lap average 107.6mph

And A1?

2005 - Brands Hatch fastest lap average 125.8mph
2005 - Lausitz Eurospeedway fastest lap average 107.7mph


I do wonder what would happen with IRL and A1 cars on the same track. A1 seem to have grip and braking abilities far beyond the raw power figures might lead you to believe.

(Incidentally, I got my figures wrong earlier - I posted the Lausitz average lap instead of the Brands one - meaning that A1 cars are actually 27mph faster than Porsche Cup cars)
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Thruxton would beat the fastest lap avetage. If they really want to test the A1 Cars to the max and its tyrers.

Then Thruxton is the play to test them out mates.
 
BTW, for the Yanks (and possibly the Canadians) out there, Outdoor Life Network (OLN) showed the Brands Hatch race today.

I know it's been a couple of weeks after the event took place. But that's a better turnaround (between the event taking place and it being broadcast) than Speed Channel showing European racing. (I mean a one-hour highlights show of the Nurburgring 24 Hours six months after the race took place! Of course they have to fit it into the broadcast schedule in between NASCAR Today, NASCAR Tonight, NASCAR Yesterday, NASCAR Tomorrow, NASCAR Wives, NASCAR Dogs, NASCAR... Oh, and those ridiculous chopper shows. :yuck: )

This post comes a bit late to watch that first race, but it's good news that we will actually get to see this series on our side of the world. :) 👍
 

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