2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season was the fourth and final season of A1 Grand Prix.

A1 Team Ireland became the fourth A1GP champions, after a title battle which went down to the final round in Great Britain. Ireland won with 112 points, with team driver Adam Carroll taking five victories at Chengdu, Sepang, Taupo and the series finale at Brands Hatch during the shortened 14 race season. Financial issues led to the cancellation of three events and ultimately the cancellation of the 2009–10 season.

Calendar

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Ten events were scheduled to be held in the 2008–09 series.[1]

Round Event Circuit Dates
C   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Italy Mugello Circuit 19–21 September 2008
1   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Netherlands Circuit Park Zandvoort 3–5 October 2008
2   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China Chengdu Goldenport Circuit 7–9 November 2008
3   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia Sepang International Circuit 21–23 November 2008
4   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, New Zealand Taupo Motorsport Park 23–25 January 2009
C   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Indonesia Jakarta Street Circuit 6–8 February 2009
5   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa Kyalami Circuit 20–22 February 2009
6   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Portugal Algarve International Circuit 10–12 March 2009
7   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain Brands Hatch 1–3 May 2009
C   A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Mexico Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez 22–24 May 2009
Map

Cancellations

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On 21 August 2008, the Italian round at Mugello was postponed following a delay in the build schedule of the new chassis.[2] A replacement date was not announced and the event was never held.[3]

Further timetable changes were announced on 26 August 2008. The Chinese round was confirmed to be held at Chengdu Goldenport Circuit, and swapped places in the calendar with the Indonesian round at Jakarta.[4] Subsequent to that, the Indonesian race was moved back further, to 8 February due to track construction.[4] The Indonesian round was later cancelled on 16 January due to the circuit missing a construction deadline.[5]

On 9 September 2008, Brands Hatch was confirmed as hosting the British round at the end of the season.[6] On 19 December, Interlagos was announced as the season finale on the weekend of 15–17 May 2009.[7] On 5 March, the Interlagos race was removed from the circuit's official calendar – making Brands Hatch the finale.[8]

The Mexican round was also moved back by one week, so as to avoid clashing with a concert held in the baseball stadium inside the circuit on the original date.[9] On 17 February 2009, an official preview reported that the Mexico City round was no longer to take place on the weekend of 20–22 March and a replacement date was being sought.[10] eTicket.com.mx advertised the event as it should take place on the weekend of 22–24 May, and was confirmed on 31 March 2009, subject to the FIA-stipulated changes to the Peraltada corner.[11][12] On 29 April 2009, the Mexican round was cancelled due to an outbreak of swine flu.[13][14]

Entry list

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Teams representing Monaco and South Korea joined the grid, whilst the Czech Republic left the series.[15][16] Canada and Pakistan appeared on the pre-season entry list, but did not participate in any rounds.[17][18]

 
Monaco made their series debut.
Entrant (Team) Driver Events
  A1 Team Australia
Alan Docking Racing
John Martin All
  A1 Team Brazil
David Sears Motorsport
Felipe Guimarães All
  A1 Team Canada
Status Grand Prix
Daniel Morad None
  A1 Team China
Team Astromega
Ho-Pin Tung 1–3, 5–6
Congfu Cheng 4, 7
  A1 Team France
DAMS
Loïc Duval 1, 3–4
Nicolas Prost 2, 5–7
  A1 Team Germany
GU-Racing International
Michael Ammermüller 5, 7
André Lotterer 6
  A1 Team Great Britain Danny Watts 2–3, 5
Dan Clarke 4, 6–7
  A1 Team India
Argo Racing Cars
Narain Karthikeyan 2–7
  A1 Team Indonesia
Performance Racing
Satrio Hermanto 1–4, 7
Zahir Ali 5–6
  A1 Team Ireland
Status Grand Prix
Adam Carroll All
  A1 Team Italy
Team Ghinzani
Fabio Onidi 1
Edoardo Piscopo 2–5
Vitantonio Liuzzi 6–7
  A1 Team Korea
Carlin Motorsport
Hwang Jin-woo 1–3
Lee Kyung-woo 5
  A1 Team Lebanon
Argo Racing Cars
  Daniel Morad All
  A1 Team Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1–6
Aaron Lim 7
  A1 Team Mexico
Campos Racing
David Garza 2–3
Salvador Durán 4–7
  A1 Team Monaco Clivio Piccione All
  A1 Team Netherlands
Racing for Holland
Jeroen Bleekemolen 1, 3, 5, 7
Robert Doornbos 2, 4, 6
  A1 Team New Zealand
David Sears Motorsport
Earl Bamber 1, 3, 5–7
Chris van der Drift 2, 4
  A1 Team Pakistan
Teamcraft Motorsport
Adam Khan None
  A1 Team Portugal
Boer Racing Services
Filipe Albuquerque All
  A1 Team South Africa
DAMS
Adrian Zaugg 1–6
Alan van der Merwe 7
  A1 Team Switzerland
Boer Racing Services
Neel Jani All
  A1 Team USA
Andretti Green Racing
Charlie Kimball 1
Marco Andretti 2–6
J.R. Hildebrand 7

Rule changes

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Technical changes

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Sporting changes

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  • The four qualifying sessions were reduced in length from fifteen minutes to ten minutes each.[21]
  • Teams may now utilise a "joker" qualifying lap (from Malaysia onwards). In one of the four qualifying sessions the team may elect to utilise their joker – for the flying lap in that session, the driver is granted the availability of the PowerBoost button for the entire lap.[22]
  • A mandatory pit-stop was added to the Sprint Race, brought into effect starting in Malaysia. Sprint Race time certainty was decreased to 24 minutes + 1 lap

Results and standings

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Results summary

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Round Event Pole Position Fastest Lap Winner Report
1 S   Netherlands   Jeroen Bleekemolen   Loïc Duval   Fairuz Fauzy Report
F   Fairuz Fauzy   Charlie Kimball   Loïc Duval
2 S   China   Adam Carroll Report
F   Danny Watts   Robert Doornbos   Filipe Albuquerque
3 S   Malaysia   Neel Jani   Neel Jani   Neel Jani Report
F   Adam Carroll
4 S   New Zealand   Adam Carroll   Neel Jani   Adam Carroll Report
F   Filipe Albuquerque   Neel Jani
5 S   South Africa   Jeroen Bleekemolen   Filipe Albuquerque   Jeroen Bleekemolen Report
F   Clivio Piccione   Fairuz Fauzy   Neel Jani
6 S   Portugal   Vitantonio Liuzzi   Adam Carroll   Robert Doornbos Report
F   Robert Doornbos   Neel Jani
7 S   Great Britain   Adam Carroll Report
F   Adam Carroll   John Martin   Adam Carroll

Championship standings

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Points system

The Sprint Race awards points to the top eight positions as opposed to the top ten in the 2007–08 season. The teams that competed in all 7 events were required to drop their worst round pointscore as a number of teams missed the season-opener in Zandvoort due to delays in producing the new chassis.[23]

Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th FL
Sprint 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
Feature 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
Championship standings
Pos Team Drivers  
NED
 
CHN
 
MLY
 
NZL
 
RSA
 
POR
 
GBR
Gross Drop Pts
S F S F S F S F S F S F S F
1   Ireland Adam Carroll Ret Ret 1 2 5 1 1 2 4 Ret 2 5 1 1 112 112
2   Switzerland Neel Jani 5 Ret 4 4 1 Ret 2 1 3 1 15 1 8 3 99 4 95
3   Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 9 Ret 6 1 4 2 6 3 2 5 3 2 5 5 92 92
4   Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 4 5 6 8 1 4 6 2 81 6 75
Robert Doornbos 2 16 3 5 1 DNS
5   France Loïc Duval 3 1 2 14 4 6 47 47
Nicolas Prost 8 Ret 10 Ret 13 6 9 10
6   Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1 2 13 5 15 10 8 10 9 NC 8 3 43 43
Aaron Lim 16 Ret
7   New Zealand Earl Bamber 2 3 3 6 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 36 36
Chris van der Drift 7 11 5 13
8   Australia John Martin 12 4 11 6 8 4 Ret 4 12 13 10 12 7 8 36 36
9   Monaco Clivio Piccione Ret 6 9 7 12 Ret 16 Ret 5 3 5 Ret Ret 4 35 35
10   Great Britain Danny Watts 3 3 Ret 16 Ret 7 28 28
Dan Clarke 12 12 11 7 13 7
11   United States Charlie Kimball 8 10 24 24
Marco Andretti 15 8 Ret 3 11 11 17 8 12 Ret
J.R. Hildebrand 4 14
12   India Narain Karthikeyan 10 10 Ret Ret 9 7 6 12 6 11 2 Ret 19 19
13   Mexico Davíd Garza 16 15 14 15 19 19
Salvador Durán 15 Ret 16 Ret 9 4 3 6
14   South Africa Adrian Zaugg 6 Ret 5 9 9 5 10 9 7 Ret 17 Ret 19 19
Alan van der Merwe 15 11
15   Brazil Felipe Guimarães 14 Ret 20 Ret Ret 7 14 15 15 2 7 DNS DNS DNS 18 18
16   Italy Fabio Onidi 7 Ret 17 17
Edoardo Piscopo 14 Ret 7 11 7 8 11 10
Vitantonio Liuzzi 4 Ret 10 9
17   Lebanon   Daniel Morad 10 8 12 13 11 12 Ret Ret NC 6 Ret Ret Ret 12 8 8
18   China Ho-Pin Tung 13 9 17 12 10 9 13 Ret 16 8 7 7
Congfu Cheng Ret 14 14 Ret
19   Korea Hwang Jin-Woo Ret 7 19 17 DNS DNS 4 4
Lee Kyung-woo DNA DNA
20   Indonesia Satrio Hermanto Ret Ret 18 14 13 13 13 Ret 12 13 3 3
Zahir Ali 18 9 14 10
21   Germany Michael Ammermüller 14 11 11 Ret 2 2
André Lotterer Ret 9
Pos Team Drivers S F S F S F S F S F S F S F Gross Drop Pts
 
NED
 
CHN
 
MLY
 
NZL
 
RSA
 
POR
 
GBR
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Finished, in points
Green Retired, in points
Blue Finished, no points
Purple Did not finish (Ret)
Not classified (NC)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Blank Did not participate
Injured (INJ)
Excluded (EX)
Bold Pole position
* Fastest lap
spr Sprint Race
fea Feature Race

References

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  1. ^ "2008/09 schedule announced". a1gp.com. 2008-06-08. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
  2. ^ "A1GP delays start of Season Four". a1gp.com. 2008-08-21. Archived from the original on 31 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  3. ^ "ローヤルゼリーは男性の健康にも". Archived from the original on 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  4. ^ a b "Chengdu race announced". a1gp.com. 2008-08-26. Archived from the original on 31 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  5. ^ "Lippo circuit fails build deadline". a1gp.com. 2009-01-16. Archived from the original on 2010-03-07. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  6. ^ "The battle of the Brands". a1gp.com. 2008-09-08. Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  7. ^ "1GP heads to Interlagos for season finale". Pitpass. 2009-01-06. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  8. ^ "calendario 2009". Archived from the original on 2009-02-22. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  9. ^ "A1GP Mexico City date change". a1gp.com. 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  10. ^ "糖尿病の初期症状を予防する". Retrieved 2009-02-18.
  11. ^ "ETicket". Archived from the original on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
  12. ^ "Mexico City to conclude A1GP season". autosport.com. 2009-03-31. Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  13. ^ "A1GP Mexico City cancelled". a1gp.com. 2009-04-29. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  14. ^ Beer, Matt (2009-04-29). "Mexico cancelled due to swine flu". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  15. ^ "Korea joins A1GP". a1gp.com. 2008-04-14. Archived from the original on 18 April 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  16. ^ "A1 Team Monaco joins A1GP". a1gp.com. 2008-08-29. Archived from the original on 2008-08-31. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  17. ^ "A1GP : The World Cup of Motorsport". Archived from the original on 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
  18. ^ "Khan to lead and race for Pakistan". a1gp.com. 2008-09-10. Archived from the original on 17 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
  19. ^ The new A1GP car a1gp.com (May 12, 2008 )
  20. ^ Michelin to supply A1GP a1gp.com (July 21, 2008)
  21. ^ a1gp.com. "Rule changes for new season". Archived from the original on 2008-09-29. Retrieved 2008-08-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ "Teams to get joker qualifying lap". a1gp.com. 2008-11-21. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
  23. ^ "New points system for 2008/09". a1gp.com. 2008-09-29. Archived from the original on 1 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
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