A1 World Cup / A1 GP / A10 World Series / Formula Acceleration?

[Furinkazen]

Right as we know A1GP collapsed with financial issues a few years back. And a proposed successor A10 World Series was either A. A big hoax, or B. Badly planned, or C. Both.

Now leafing around reveals something interesting, it seems that a member of Dubai's royal family has had an idea to bring it back. Time-wise I have no idea when it was launched, but these items provide interesting reading...

http://www.globalmotorsport.net/a1/
http://a1wc.gpgrid.com/
http://a1worldcup.com/

Now I have to say I have my doubts on this, but as it says on http://a1wc.gpgrid.com/ , "Here we go again...".

 

[GTPorsche]

Doesn't start for about 6 months.

Plenty of time for it to "failure to launch" once again.

 

[Furinkazen]

Doesn't start for about 6 months.

Plenty of time for it to "failure to launch" once again.

My thoughts exactly.

Bit of research reveals that Sheikh Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, allegedly behind this, competed in the short lived Speedcar Series as well.

 

[nitrorocks]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking about this today! AND I made a GT5 series for it! I hope it comes back. It produced some great racing.

 

[Furinkazen]

http://a1wc.gpgrid.com/2012/02/21/some-good-news/

"Special Signature????"

 

[nitrorocks]

Yeah that's a bit odd. I hope USA gets a team again! But Marco better not drive. If we do get a team again, I bet well get Micheal Lewis, JR Hildebrand will get an offer, and Alex Rossi.

 

[MartinGPG]

My thoughts exactly.
Bit of research reveals that Sheikh Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, allegedly behind this, competed in the short lived Speedcar Series as well.

The Sheikh was behind A1 Grand Prix not this version - A1 Worldcup.

http://a1wc.gpgrid.com/2012/02/21/some-good-news/
"Special Signature????"

Yes a very special signature - they are in the UK now for signing next week.
I am in regular contact with them [since June 2010] and I believe they will get it done.
Not sure what it will look like but feel they want to return to original A1GP concept.
Word of caution to National fans - no guarantee your team will be in new series - unless you are Dutch that is

 

[Ardius]

Yeah that's a bit odd. I hope USA gets a team again! But Marco better not drive. If we do get a team again, I bet well get Micheal Lewis, JR Hildebrand will get an offer, and Alex Rossi.

Problem is, why would any up and coming driver want to sign for A1GP? Why would any sponsor agree to pay for such drives where they get little to no visibility? Its core concept is inherently flawed from the beginning.
Alex Rossi for example, why take a drive in A1GP over FR3.5 or GP2? JR Hildebrand has got a successful Indycar career going...

I can't see it going anywhere again and ending up like Superleague Formula where drivers who can't find their way up the ordinary ladders go.

Not to mention I've never really understood this fascination with nations and countries - its such an outdated concept not to mention most of the "nations" represented in A1GP in the past were run by foreign teams and rarely showcased the best driver talent from the respective nations - funnily enough they're all busy competing against the best in the world regardless of nationality rather than pretending to fly the flag for a country.
I also hated the idea that seats were set aside for certain nationalities. So if we had 3 brilliant Italian drivers...only one of them gets to drive whereas we let some terrible driver race simply because he's French or whatever?

 

[Stavelot]

Nations racing nations is so 1940s.....

 

[nitrorocks]

The racing was good. There were a lot of inexperienced drivers though. I find most of the battles better than F1.

 

[Prince.M5]

A1GP did show some good racing and entertainment over the past few years. However, as said not many drivers from A1GP managed to climb up the ladder - much like Superleague Formula. It is a shame, this Nations vs. Nations racing concept is not going to work well anymore these days.

Even if it's finally gone back up again, I doubt if it will get much views because the old A1GP didn't do well in this.

 

[Ardius]

The racing was good. There were a lot of inexperienced drivers though. I find most of the battles better than F1.

A1GP did show some good racing and entertainment over the past few years.

But was that because of A1GP's nations idea? No. Its actually a shame that it could produce great racing but become held back by being "the World Cup of motorsport". I realise that this is pretty much its only feature to set it apart from other open-wheel series but surely you could get the same great racing if you ditch the nations and allow sponsors to colour the cars?

Its kind of a cursed blessing really - if A1GP didn't have nations then it would simply be another version of GP2 but because of the nations thing, it limits the ability to find sponsorship and limits the quality of the drivers. The success it did achieve was tied to this, but equally it could never rise above that success.

 

[Tired Tyres]

There would be no point to it at all if it didn't use nations as its USP.

There are more than enough single seater series already. The only way you can justify another one is if you do something different. That's what A1GP did, it's what Superleague Formula did. There simply isn't room for anything that doesn't do something like this.

 

[Ardius]

Yes I agree I've just said that in my previous post, but equally it limits how successful A1GP can be when you prevent sponsors colouring the cars - as then no sponsors want to be involved so where does the money come from to run the cars? This is precisely why this series failed the first time - money was always a problem.

 

[Tired Tyres]

What sponsors? There aren't any to be found. Hell even the odd team in F1 can't get sponsors. What chance does anyone else have?

Tobacco companies used to throw money around like confetti in the lower formula, but no other industry has stepped into their place after they got banned.

We are living in a very different financial world now and another way has to be found.

 

[Ardius]

Sponsors that drivers need to find to be able to race - which applies to all race series. Look, put it this way, a driver has managed to find a sponsorship package that can pay for a competitive seat in GP2, FR3.5 or A1GP. Which one is the driver and the sponsors going to be more interested in?

Certainly not the series where the sponsor can't even get their own coverage on the car.

What sponsors? The entire world of motorsport is based on sponsorship. To try and run a series where sponsorship doesn't really work so well is financial suicide - as proven by A1GP. Where else can the money come from?
Tobacco companies are gone, but car manufacturers are still around. As are insurance companies, oil companies, spare parts companies, food chains, drinks companies....

Show me the F1 team which "can't get sponsors". All the F1 teams have sponsors.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Sponsors that drivers need to find to be able to race - which applies to all race series. Look, put it this way, a driver has managed to find a sponsorship package that can pay for a competitive seat in GP2, FR3.5 or A1GP. Which one is the driver and the sponsors going to be more interested in?

Certainly not the series where the sponsor can't even get their own coverage on the car.

What sponsors? The entire world of motorsport is based on sponsorship. To try and run a series where sponsorship doesn't really work so well is financial suicide - as proven by A1GP. Where else can the money come from?
Tobacco companies are gone, but car manufacturers are still around. As are insurance companies, oil companies, spare parts companies, food chains, drinks companies....

Show me the F1 team which "can't get sponsors". All the F1 teams have sponsors.

I take you think "cool spot" is a sponsor?, What about "This could be you"? Heard of them? What about "Your logo here"? What do they sell?

As for car manufacturers, insurance companies, oil companies, spare parts companies, food chains, drinks companies....

Not all of them combined even remotely approaches the money tobbaco used to throw around. NOTHING has stepped up to take it's place. THAT'S the problem for all racing categories.

 

[Prince.M5]

But was that because of A1GP's nations idea? No.

I didn't say it was because of A1GP's nations idea. What I said is that the A1GP series itself is producing some good racing and entertainment. If they're coming back, I want them to ditch the Nations vs. Nations idea because as I said, it won't work well anymore these days. The whole idea was actually not successful - much like Superleague Formula to introduce football clubs into motorsport - which didn't turn out that well.

Certainly not the series where the sponsor can't even get their own coverage on the car.

Not their own coverage on the car? Let's take the A1GP Team Malaysia.

We had Proton, Spritzer, PLUS, Visit Malaysia, Focus Aviation and Astro on the car. How is that no sponsor coverage on the car?

 

[Ardius]

I take you think "cool spot" is a sponsor?, What about "This could be you"? Heard of them? What about "Your logo here"? What do they sell?

No, these are sponsors:
Tata, Panda, Thesan, Forch, inter wetten...

Not all of them combined even remotely approaches the money tobbaco used to throw around. NOTHING has stepped up to take it's place. THAT'S the problem for all racing categories.

Tobacco companies were never the sole source of sponsorship. And I consider companies like Red Bull and Lotus spending their money everywhere pretty much identical to Marlboro...but whatever. This is completely irrelevant to the point that A1GP didn't even cater to these sponsors either.
If tobacco companies were still around, they wouldn't sponsor A1GP either.

Not their own coverage on the car? Let's take the A1GP Team Malaysia.

We had Proton, Spritzer, PLUS, Visit Malaysia, Focus Aviation and Astro on the car. How is that no sponsor coverage on the car?

The colours were restricted though, a sponsor in GP2 can choose to have the colour of the car however they like - which is far better visibility than just a logo. Sponsoring a driver in another series gains much greater coverage than it does/did in A1GP just for this alone.

 

[Furinkazen]

A1 GP was about nations, national colours, and by the time of its demise was picking up sponsors ironically...

 

[Stavelot]

I don't think the NZ car had any sponsors on it honestly....

 

[Furinkazen]

I don't think the NZ car had any sponsors on it honestly....

 

[GTPorsche]

They all had sponsors that related to their country.

 

[Furinkazen]

Hmmm...

http://a1gp2.com/

"
A1GP is Back!

In 2004 a new motor racing series was launched on the world – A1 Grand Prix – and a few weeks later we launched A1podium the first independent dedicated website to this series.
In 2009 the final round of season 4 at Brands Hatch, UK, was the final round of A1GP – began and ended at Brands Hatch – full circle. But we kept the faith.
Now we are collating everything from 2004-2012 at A1GP Grid as an Archive.
To cover the New A1GP we have started a New website A1GP2 – the second coming!

~ 8 Years Keeping the Faith! ~

~ A1GP Fan Day ~

A1worldcup have issued an invite to 5,000 A1 fans to attend a get together with them soon ahead of the official launch of the new series later this year. They will have the cars and some drivers, etc., there at a location and date to be announced – either in The Netherlands or Germany."

And from here http://a1gpgrid.com/2012/04/02/a1worldcup-announce-launch-fanday/ these seem a little... fake...

I still call extreme sceptism and no concrete evidence.

But th adverts says Dutch.. and the guy who posted here said in February..

Word of caution to National fans - no guarantee your team will be in new series - unless you are Dutch that is [/B]

The plot thickens...


EDIT: Via the Twitter page https://twitter.com/#!/GPGrid apparently A10 World Series collapsed with financial issues. And I don;t have twitter so can;t look at all pages, but they follow Martin Brundle and Karun Chandhok...

3rd EDIT: Check the "A1 GP Promotion Demo Manchester" video here http://a1gpgrid.com/a1gp-videos/ ... I was there ... in fact Iwas left of the camera for the second half of the video.

 

[nitrorocks]

Just followed them on twitter. Anyways, it is certain UK, Germany, France, and Italy will get teams. Hopefully the USA will.

 

[Furinkazen]

From Autosport magazine this week

A1's assets are now in place after freight company Delivered On Time, a major A1 GP creditor, gained the rights to sell the assets after a deal with administrators last december.

DoT managing director Paul Fowler has said that they have cleared all "Legal Obstacles" so all assets including the "Powered By Ferrari" cars and the intellectual property rights to the A1 GP name. Interestingly reports in April about the dutch-based World Race Management surfaced claiming they were planning a relaunch.

Fowler says "We can categorically say it has not been sold, but we are in negotiations with 3 parties".

DOT are also believed to be in talks with the group who tried to relaunch under the A10 World Series banner.

 

[Furinkazen]

Via twitter.

I smell something fishy... why is it copyright 2011?

 

[nitrorocks]

I've got no idea. Who tweeted that? A10 or A1?

 

[Prince.M5]

What is this, what is it going to be and which one is correct, A1 or A10?

 

[Furinkazen]

I've got no idea. Who tweeted that? A10 or A1?

What is this, what is it going to be and which one is correct, A1 or A10?

https://twitter.com/#!/GPGrid

Don't know what to make. The story above was in this weeks Autosport saying it was up for sale...