13 replies to this topic

[KoolMonkey]

Wow, it keeps getting better for A1GP.  70k seats sold for the first race.  And we had 30-40k at Monza (one of the Italian GPs) this year which was terrible considering how big the sport is there.  Makes you wonder what new rules and other such things are going to happen for 2006, cause this is going to be one stinking hot winter is A1 kicks into gear and takes off like I know it will.  

With a number of ex-F1 drivers, and ex-F1 champions and past people involved in the teams, there's already a link to fans from F1.  Yes Young was a mediocre driver, but at least we know him lol.  Vestappen, Wilson, Sato (ok taking bets he drives for the Japanese team since he's leaving BAR).  Sweet now we can see Sato owning all in huge pileups at slower speeds.  Awesome.

http://www.pitpass.c...es_art_id=25933

Edited by KoolMonkey, 23 September 2005 - 08:45 AM.

[Sato]

Indeed, thats impressive, but remember its the first race of a new series. They were always going to draw a big crowd.

Its like the new A-League over here (Soccer/football) Round 1 was drawing crowds between 25,000 - 30,000 from memory, now they are struggling to get over 10,000 to games, so it really depends on how fast it can grow once it starts.

I know im gonna try and keep up with it at first to see if i like it.

[KoolMonkey]

True.  I have faith A1 will stick around.  This might just be the tonic that wakes F1 up.  Just imagine if A1 was the breakaway F1 series and they got 70k people for their first race.  I hope the teams don't stay pussies for long and either tell Max and Bernie to shove off and start their own series or buy the banks share of F1 and make the changes themselves.

[Senna]

KoolMonkey, on Sep 23 2005, 09:45 AM, said:

Wow, it keeps getting better for A1GP.  70k seats sold for the first race.  And we had 30-40k at Monza (one of the Italian GPs) this year which was terrible considering how big the sport is there.  Makes you wonder what new rules and other such things are going to happen for 2006, cause this is going to be one stinking hot winter is A1 kicks into gear and takes off like I know it will.  

With a number of ex-F1 drivers, and ex-F1 champions and past people involved in the teams, there's already a link to fans from F1.  Yes Young was a mediocre driver, but at least we know him lol.  Vestappen, Wilson, Sato (ok taking bets he drives for the Japanese team since he's leaving BAR).  Sweet now we can see Sato owning all in huge pileups at slower speeds.  Awesome.

Wilson is not driving for team GB – he’s too good.

[KoolMonkey]

Oh.  I thought there was another F1 guy like Wilson that was going to have a drive.

[monza gorilla]

KoolMonkey, on Sep 23 2005, 04:30 PM, said:

Oh.  I thought there was another F1 guy like Wilson that was going to have a drive.

Are you thinking of Ralph Firman?

[admin]

The A1GP is live on Foxtel in Australia and channel 10 are showing it delayed the follow Sunday night.

I dont have foxtel and I cant wait till the following weekend, so might have to grab it online to check it out.

[KoolMonkey]

monza gorilla, on Sep 23 2005, 07:34 AM, said:

Are you thinking of Ralph Firman?

Yeah he's the one.

[demonhorse]

KoolMonkey, on Sep 24 2005, 07:29 AM, said:

Yeah he's the one.

except he's driving for the EIRE team, not GB.

Two guys I never heard of for team GB though they do seem to be getting around 4th position a lot through practise. Surprised BBC didnt snatch this one off sky sports.
I'm wondering if Sky bid for it because they hate F1 due to the dismal failure that was F1PPV... which was kinda a stupid idea really when UK viewers had a FREE-TO-VIEW option already. Similar mistake was made by ITV-Digital when they tried to make profit from showing division 2 soccer matches on a PPV basis.

Personally I think A1 GP will only take off in the British Isles if Team GB or EIRE win a lot... just the same way people suddenly taken interest in cricket and rugby recently for those reasons.

I also think it will be something to keep my interest during F1s off-season, and it is a different enough format that I think comparisons with F1 are mostly unfair... despite certain newspapers being FULL of them today, but I have a gripe...

In a series which claims to be focussing on testing driver skill, why the hell do they have an overtake button?
Surely this defeats the whole ethos of what they are trying to create?
*sorry if this has been discussed already in other threads*

Edited by demonhorse, 25 September 2005 - 02:22 PM.

[Senna]

demonhorse, on Sep 24 2005, 08:58 PM, said:

except he's driving for the EIRE team, not GB.

Which is perplexing since he was born in Norwich!

[demonhorse]

Senna, on Sep 25 2005, 03:16 PM, said:

Which is perplexing since he was born in Norwich!

Maybe he has two passports? I know a guy who has a genuine claim to dual nationality and he has a Canadian Passport and an Irish one, I'm guessing Pierce... I mean Ralph has a similar situation and actually had a backup if he couldn't get into one team.

I see Brazil won both the sprint and feature races this weekend... as Formula One races in Brazil. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come?

[Jenson_Rules]

took us 4 hours to get home and thats excluding the fact we stopped for half an hour! When on a clear run it would take 1hour and 3/4 possibly less! The traffic was horrendous specially on the M25! Riiculous!

[Trog]

Jenson_Rules!!!, on Sep 25 2005, 11:13 PM, said:

took us 4 hours to get home and thats excluding the fact we stopped for half an hour! When on a clear run it would take 1hour and 3/4 possibly less! The traffic was horrendous specially on the M25! Riiculous!

You're not wrong (and we were stuck in the same traffic jam, too..  But I don't know if there was actually a solution.  There were just too many of us

I thought the race was worth it, though..

T

[Jenson_Rules]

yep! We were stuck in traffic till the services at clacket lane between junction 5 and 6 on the M25, we got to about junction 9 maybe a bit further and then were stuck in a HUGE traffic jam for 2 hours until we got to the m3 and then we drove home easily! but yeah the feauture race was great, the old cars after too was cool, i also got some bar merchandise and a framed photo of JB's bar in action and some fa drawings n stuff! Great! I also got a team GB polo shirt, it was almost the last one too !