A1GP returns to Zhuhai

A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsports revisits Zhuhai International Circuit

Zhuhai International Circuit officially announces that A1 Grand Prix - World Cup of Motorsports, the racing series in which nations are pitted against nations, will be held at the circuit on 15th November 2009. The last time A1 Grand Prix raced at ZIC was on 16th December 2007.

A1GP is one of the most advanced circuit racing series sanctioned by FIA, it is held every year from September to May. All the competing teams use the same car, therefore for Chinese drivers, it allows them to race on an open and fair platform. This makes A1 Grand Prix a particularly interesting racing series for the Chinese motorsport fans. Accroding to A1 Grand Prix regulations, each country is only allowed to enter one team. The driver of the team must be a national of the team. For this reason, A1 Grand Prix is also known as the "World Cup of Motorsports".

In the sprint race at ZIC in 2007, A1 Team China's driver Cheng Congfu finished in third place and got on to the podium, receiving wild applause from the 60,000 strong attending fans. The second race was won by A1 Team India's Narain Karthikeyan, prove positive that ZIC is a good circuit for Asian drivers.

The A1 Grand Prix race car is the fastest race car to have raced at ZIC. In qualifying in 2007, the fastest lap time was 1:23.203; in the race, the fastest lap time was 1:24.418. The records were set by A1 Team Germany and A1 Team Switzerland respectively. Since last year, A1 Grand Prix has started using a new Ferrari racecar with Ferrari engines. The 4,500cc Ferrari V8 engine is able to produce 600bhp, while the chassis is based on the design of Ferrari's F2004 Formula 1 car. This new A1 Grand Prix racecar will likely rewrite the record books at ZIC this time.

A1 Grand Prix is also the cradle for F1 drivers, many former A1GP drivers later found themselves racing in F1, such as: Sebastiem Buemi (Switzerland), Nelson Piquet Jr (Brazil), Adrian Sutil (Germany), Scott Speed (USA) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy). Some F1 drivers also race in the series after their F1 career, including: Alex Yoong (Malaysia), Narain Karthekeyan (India), Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany).

A1 Team China has provided opportunities for Chinese drivers to race for their country. Apart from Cheng Congfu, Tung Ho-Pin, Marchy Lee and Jiang Teng-yi have all taken part either as race driver or test driver.

With A1 Grand Prix coming to ZIC again, Executive Deputy General Manager Mr. Stewart Tan states: "We are very happy A1 Grand Prix decided to visit ZIC again, although there is less than two months to the race from now, our entire staff will work hard to ensure everything goes smoothly. Since we already have experience with A1 Grand Prix, we are confident the race will run smoothly. I hope all the race fans will come to Zhuhai to cheer for A1 Team China." He also mentions that ZIC will fully co-operate with the promotions effort to drum up the race event in Zhuhai and the Pearl River Delta.

The A1 Grand Prix - Zhuhai, China round will be held from 13th to 15th November. Free practice will be run on 13th Nov, qualifying on 14th Nov and two races will be run on 15th Nov. For ticket information, please visit Zhuhai International Circuit (www.zic.com.cn) and A1GP.com websites.

-credit: zic