A1 Team Great Britain

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A1 Team Great Britain
Great Britain
Founded 2005
Seat holder Tony Clements
Team principal John Surtees
Race driver(s) Robbie Kerr
Darren Manning
Oliver Jarvis
First race 2005-06 Great Britain
Events entered 32
Championships 0
Sprint race victories 2
Main race victories 3
Pole positions 4
Fastest laps 4
Total points 315
2007-08 position 3rd (126 pts)
edit

A1 Team Great Britain is the British team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series.

A1 Team Great Britain was one of the first six seat holders in the series announced, with chairman John Surtees hosting the event. The car was unveiled to the public in September 2005, displaying a distinctive blue, red and white livery to reflect the colours of the flag of the United Kingdom, rather than Britain's traditional racing green colour.

Contents

[edit] Management

British financier Tony Clements is the national seat holder, and will run the corporate arm of the team. Former Formula One and 500cc Motorcycle World Champion John Surtees was the team principal for the first 2 seasons of A1GP, working with the organisational structure, technical development, recruitment and race operations for the team. He quit his role before season 3 and was replaced by Katie Clements. The Arden International racing organisation was responsible for race operations of the team for the first season. However, for season 2 Surtees assembled a bespoke race team to handle the race operations of A1 Team Great Britain. That team is still in place in the 3rd season of A1GP.

[edit] Drivers

Robbie Kerr negotiates Pilgrim's Drop at Brands Hatch during the 2005-06 curtain raiser.
Robbie Kerr negotiates Pilgrim's Drop at Brands Hatch during the 2005-06 curtain raiser.

In May 2005, A1 Team Great Britain held a "shoot-out" evaluation test to select their driver(s) for the 2005-06 season. The drivers used an ex-Arden International Formula 3000 car for the test, which was held at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Ralph Firman and Robbie Kerr drove the car on the first day, both completing over 60 laps each in dry conditions. The following day, Alex Lloyd and James Rossiter were faced with wet conditions, and both drove 20 laps before Kerr was put back in the car for a further 20 laps so that the team could have a useful comparison between the two days.

On July 4, 2005, Surtees announced that A1 Team Great Britain had selected Kerr and Lloyd as their drivers for the series' first season. At the first full official A1 Grand Prix test session, at a shortened Silverstone Circuit, Kerr set the fastest time of the day ahead of 14 other countries.

A1 Team Great Britain were the first team in the series to offer a testing role to a woman driver. Katherine Legge (who had previously tested a Formula 1 car for the now-defunct Minardi team), tested at the Dubai Autodrome during the United Arab Emirates race weekend.

Despite Lloyd being selected as the team's second driver, when Kerr was unavailable for the season finale in China, former British American Racing test driver and IndyCar racer Darren Manning was drafted in to replace him.

For the 2006-07 season the team selected Oliver Jarvis to join the squad alongside Kerr and the now full-time recruit Manning. Jarvis will primarily drive the car during Friday's "Rookie Practice Sessions", with Kerr and Manning competing in the races, though Jarvis will be given chances to race.

[edit] Drivers

Name Seasons Races
(Starts)
A1GP Title Wins Sprint
wins
Main
wins
2nd 3rd Poles Fastest
Laps
Points
Flag of England Oliver Jarvis 2006-07, 2007-08 7(14) 2 2 5 2 24
Flag of England Robbie Kerr 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 23(46) 3 3 11 4 4 2 154
Flag of England Darren Manning 2005-06, 2006-07 2(4) 1 15

[edit] Complete A1 Grand Prix Results

(key), "spr" indicate a Sprint Race, "fea" indicate a Main Race. Results in bold indicate pole position, and resutls in italics inidicate fastest lap.

Year Racing
team
Chassis,
Engine,
Tyres
Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Points Rank
2005-06 Arden International Lola,
Zytek,
Cooper Avon
GBR spr GBR fea GER spr GER fea PRT spr PRT fea AUS spr AUS fea MYS spr MYS fea ARE spr ARE fea ZAF spr ZAF fea IDN spr IDN fea MEX spr MEX fea USA spr USA fea CHN spr CHN fea 97 3rd
Robbie Kerr 5 Ret Ret 2 Ret 12 5 2 3 Ret 9 2 2 Ret 2 10 11 6 4 3
Darren Manning 2 15
2006-07 Arden International Lola
Zytek
Cooper Avon
NED spr NED fea CZE spr CZE fea BEI spr BEI fea MYS spr MYS fea IDN spr IDN fea NZ spr NZ fea AUS spr AUS fea ZAF spr ZAF fea MEX spr MEX fea SHA spr SHA fea GBR spr GBR fea 92 3rd
Darren Manning 5 7
Robbie Kerr 9 6 5 2 3* Ret 8 Ret 19 10 9 2 1 2 1* 2
Oliver Jarvis 7 2 2 1
2007-08 Arden International Lola
Zytek
Cooper Avon
NED spr NED fea CZE spr CZE fea MYS spr MYS fea ZHU spr ZHU fea NZ spr NZ fea AUS spr AUS fea ZAF spr ZAF fea MEX spr MEX fea SHA spr SHA fea GBR spr GBR fea 126 3rd
Oliver Jarvis 7 1 6 12 6 5 2 11 2 2
Robbie Kerr 2 17 Ret Ret 16 3 9 9 1 2

[edit] External links

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