A1GP Teams Making Final Prep for Upcoming Chinese Round
Written by Allan Brewer · October 31, 2008
Several A1 Teams made final preparations this week for round two of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Chengdu, China on November 9th. Among them were the Chinese team and Pakistan, both appearing for the first time this year on the A1GP testing surface at the UK’s Silverstone circuit. They were joined by the teams from Brazil, France, Korea and Switzerland. Swiss Neel Jani was quickest in the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car in the truncated sessions, which were prematurely ended by severe weather.
A1GP.com: Teams Prep for Chinese Round; Switzerland Posts Fastest Test at Silverstone
Ho-Pin Tung and Congfu Cheng will partner for the upcoming season for the Chinese team, both having previous podium finishes in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport series to their credit. Tung raced for A1 Team China in the season-opening round at Zandvoort in September.
“These were the only dry laps we have done so far in this car” Tung said following the hail-storm-shortened testing sessions. “So we are still sorting out the base set up and things like that to be well prepared for our home race in Chengdu. It’s a very nice car to drive though, very stable and impressive at high speeds.”
“It all starts again in China though and you have to show you and your team mean business. Compared to many of the other teams, we still have less kilometres on the car but we are very happy to rack up some kilometres on the dry track today. It has been a good day to do some catching up so hopefully this will help us for Chengdu.”
Switzerland’s Neel Jani recorded a lap of 46.098-seconds, the quickest of the testing session, 0.371 seconds quicker than Portugal.
“We just carried on where we left off from the test last Thursday,” said Jani. “We tried different things and I’m pretty pleased with how we got on.
“Like last time, we didn’t really go for a lap time, we were trying different things with the set up and just learning. We would have liked to do a high fuel run this afternoon, but it started hailing so we’ll have to do that in Chengdu. Finally I have got some testing though so I understand more about the car, about the brakes and about how it should feel. There is still a lot of potential to go quicker though.”
Nicolas Prost returned to the cockpit of A1 Team France for the UK tester, though the French team has yet to announce a regular driver for the Chinese event. It was the rookie’s second day’s of testing with the team.
“The car is much more stable and much quicker than the old one, which is why it’s easier to drive,” said Prost, “but you have to go quick and really push very hard. We have been very competitive here and I got a grasp of the car pretty quickly.”
“I would be really proud to race for my country. It would be a lot of pressure though, as it means people believe in you, so you would have to deliver something good!”
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