24/02/2006
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Netherlands has arrived in the Mexican city of Monterrey for round nine of the A1 Grand Prix series. The team starts this race lying sixth in the Championship, with 53 ponts. In Mexico the team will be working hard to add to that total. After the win in Durban and the strong races in Indonesia A1 Team Netherlands looks ahead to the coming race at Fundidora circuit with a positive feeling.
The Fundidora Park circuit has got one of the most spectacular backdrops in motorsport. The circuit is situated right in the middle of Monterrey, which is surrounded by mountains. But it is mostly the old steel mill that dominates the view. Inside the track the old buildings and workshops of the steel factory have been transformed in a cinema, library and museums.
The track has a length of 3.386 kilometers and was inaugurated in 2001, with the support of the Champ Car series. The track is fairly wide and overtaking should be possible in many of the 13 corners.
The pitlane in Monterrey clearly is different then on the previously visited circuits. This pitlane was designed with the American Champ Car in mind, which means that there are no garages and that the teams will, just like in Champ Car, have to jump over a small wall to get to the car.
Apart from the A1 Grand Prix there will also be action from a number of classic F1 cars this weekend. One of those is the old Samson Shadow in which A1 Team Netherlands team principal Jan Lammers drove. His name still is on the car next to the Dutch flag.
For A1 Team Netherlands driver Jos Verstappen Monterrey again is a new track. Verstappen who, as usual, walked around the track with his engineers for an inspection thinks this is a technical track on which going really fast might be quite hard.
Jos Verstappen; "I walked a lap yesterday. It’s an unusual track. It is not really a fast circuit, there are some tight corners and some unusual sweeping turns after each other. I think this is a technical course, where you must have a good balance in the car. We will do our best and try and make the best of it. It feels good here, everything seems to work. The surroundings are nice and I think that it will fall into place. How the grip will be I can say tomorrow, but it is totally different from Indonesia. Here it’s much cleaner and level".