11/10/2007
NEWS STORY
For the second round of the 2007/08 A1GP season, A1 Team Netherlands has travelled to the Czech city of Brno. Last year A1 Team Netherlands did manage to score points, but was unable to compete with the front runners. This time out the team keen to at least do that and improve on the season start, where the team took a podium and points.
For A1 Team Netherlands Rookie Arie Luyendyk jr. it is also the very first Rookie session this season, in Zandvoort this was cancelled. On a track that is completely unknown to him Arie will do everything to lay a solid foundation for the weekend; "First and foremost I need to bed in some brakes, that will take some time in the First session. My goal is to put in some solid runs and get a step ahead with the car set up. That is the ideal situation. Obviously I need to learn the track as quick as I can. So hopefully we have two good sessions and can improve the car."
A1 Team Netherlands lead driver Jeroen Bleekemolen is hoping for an improvement of the Zandvoort result: "In the opening round at Zandvoort we finished on the podium, here we will go for matching but preferably improving this, so we can climb in the Championship. We are competing here with a significantly different set up compared to last year, which should improve our pace quite a bit, and will do everything to go home again with a good result."
This morning A1 Team Neterlands team principal Jan Lammers enjoyed the Czech countryside during a train journey from the capitol Prague to Brno to start the A1GP event, accompanied by Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil, some A1GP drivers and 22 contestants for the Miss A1GP Brno title; "The train journey here was wonderful, a good start to this event. There is much interest from the media here and it is growing more and more. A large number of spectators are expected for Sunday. As a team we have constantly made improvements, also after Zandvoort we were able to make some steps forward. We are very much looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the weekend. We started the season with a bold statement, but of course you say that your goal is to win. The championship will be decided over the course of the remaining races and we hope that with a good result here we can continue on the way we took in Zandvoort and have a good season."
Also today it was announced that A1GP and Ferrari have signed a six year partnership deal. Ferrari will make the new engines from next season, also design the new chassis and act as consultant for the manufacturing."This is not only a landmark deal in A1GP history," says Lammers. "It is also great to be a part of this historic deal as A1 Team Netherlands. Not only there is the connection with the beautiful brand of Ferrari, it means that you have received their seal of approval and have also passed their quality control. Being able to log in to this offers us an immense amount of benefits, also with the new A2 series, which will enable us as A1 Team Netherlands to scout for talent early on. I don't think that the motor sports world realizes the impact of this yet. Up to now there were only two people able to race a Ferrari Formula car, soon a lot more talents will be able to do this. Also on a regional level talent can move from karting straight into a Ferrari and that is an awesome perspective."