A1 GP Kyalami South Africa
by Chris on Feb.24, 2009, under A1 GP
I prefer not to include the “Gauteng” bit, somehow it does not roll off the tong as easy as “Johannesburg” or even “Midrand” but it remains one of the best race tracks in the world. The mixture of high and low speed corners with their positive and negative cambers to match make for eventful racing and for the first time teams in A1 GP experienced this first hand.
I must state that the performance of the South African Team was not what I expected. Adrian Zaugg should know this track like the back of his hand since he raced here so often in his early career. I know pre-race statistics for A1 GP did not exist but his performance for the weekend was poor and even during the race it would appear that his heart was not in the racing. Adrian should have taken lessons from China who tried to overtake at corners where it just would not work but he did try to pass. Could it be that Felipe Massa who support a “Nation against Nation” concept and shook Adrians hand brought some bad luck? Surely not….however he did support Brazilian Felipe Guimaraes and he did not do too well….?Brazilian Felipe Guimaraes crash in the “esses” in the final few laps of last qualifying round again highlighted the risk drivers and their teams take just to get some advantage of the track after most cars have laid down rubber and would thus allow them to get that last thousands of a second benefit in posting good qualifying times.
That is all good but if any incident occur you might just not get any benefit at all. I do believe A1 GP should rather use a format where drivers have a set time to complete their qualifying in and if they want to use more than three laps to achieve a good time so be it
