A1gp Round 2 : Lausitz

not bad for GB

coverage was better than Brands, still having noob errors with the timing but hopfully they will be able to sort that out for Estoril, at least they had timing graphics this time. still too much focusing on the pits and not whats going on on track though.

i saw 1st event but forgot all about 2nd this weekend mainly due to lack of tv coverage on free to air tv which shows that this series isnt going to take off until they have a highlights program like gp2 on itv or something simlar on a different channel.

Not bad by gb though and good to see brazil arent dominating like i thought they might have the way they did at brands

Christian Jones should be shot. Then slaughtered.

Yeah what the hell is up with that? What'd Aus do with Will Power?

Oh well, another solid result for NZ sees us sitting 2nd in the championship. But what of the mighty Dutch?

i am pretty sure he was racing at bathurst this weekend.

But yes, jone shot be shot then sluaghtered... bloody disgraceful...... unaustralian drive

Well, being rammed of in the 1st lap (for the 2nd time in a row ) doesnt really help.

After having to start at the back of the grid again and a questionable drive-through penalty 7th place is not that bad, is it?

wow new zealand are doing well considering they do not have many top racers that the world knows of.

I guess lots of consistant displays from them with good finishes to others misfortune such as gb breaking down @ brands etc?

GB are way behind though considering their raw speed

NZ would have been higher at Brands if Halliday hadn't stalled on the grid of the feature race. We were faster than Australia there. We only had our second-string driver at Luasitz as well with Halliday contracted to race at Bathurst (they interviewed him at the race looking ****ed off to be stuck there racing "tin tops" )

One thing I will say in New Zealand's favour is that it's truly a New Zealand team. The team is run out of West Surrey racing, which is owned and mostly populated by ex-pat New Zealanders. They're also headed by Bob McMurray who filled management roles at Mclaren for 30 odd years. So they probably have a basic "know what the hell they're doing" advantage over some of the other teams. Hopefully it holds.

After two rounds I think it's becoming clear that despite all having the same car, the engineering side of things - being able to set the car up properly, keep it running reliably and the ablity to perform a flipping tyre change - is still proving very important. So you have GB and US struggling for points because they haven't got these things right consistently.

what's with all the we's???? are you a kiwi............bloody hope not

You got your head hidden under a rock?

Erm... Scott Dixon? (OK not top, but I doubt we're talking Schumacher here)

Denny Hulme also won the world championship back in 67... he was a Kiwi too. They're not as anonymous as you'd believe.

i think think of a famour kiwi...Mclaren!!!!!

Its never going to be very popular until it gets free to air tv coverage.

No one in the Uk even knew it was on, I didnt!

Funny that, ah well..

ok scott dixon but no1 else i know off from NZ

Chris Amon also drove F1 for Ferrari in the sixties. We haven't been able to claim Mclaren as a New Zealand team for a while but there's still a kiwi presence there. Montoya's chief engineer is a kiwi I believe (name escapes me) he's the one who ****ed up in Canada!

Main problem for New Zealand drivers these days is distance and sponsorship. They tend to lose out to drivers of the same or lesser ability just because they don't have the same level of hype following them. Coming from a small country with practically zero-market potentional is not an attractive prospect to sponsors - or someone like Berine. Which is why A1GP is good for someone like Matt Halliday who's been stuggling to get a regular seat in a major series but clearly has what it takes to compete.

I tend to think if Scott Dixon were American he'd be in F1. His problem was that he wanted a competitive race drive straight away. Didn't want to go testing, didn't want to drive for a mid-field team. Unsurprisingly none of the top teams were going to give him a shot on those terms - and Bernie expressed no interest in supporting him - which would have been a different story if he were American. Dixon would have been wiser to follow Mark Webber's lead and pay his dues. He decided he'd rather win in America, where he had sponsorship support and a lucrative No.1 spot at Ganassi, than trail around in Europe. Which bit him in the arse as since then the Ganassi team has been utter crap.

Oh well how sad nevermind.

p.s. Another NZ'er Wade Cunningham seems set to win the Infinity Pro feeder series this year so will hopefully appear in Champ or IRL soon as well.