2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season


The 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season was the second season for the A1 Grand Prix series.
It began on 1 October 2006, at Circuit Park Zandvoort, and the season ended at Brands Hatch on 29 April 2007. A1 Team Germany won it with 128 points, 35 points lead ahead Team New Zealand.

Teams

24 teams, each representing a different country, signed up for the second A1 Grand Prix season. All teams and drivers competed in Zytek-powered, Cooper Avon-shod and Lola chassis. The following teams competed in the 2006-07 championship:
Race TeamTeamSeat holderRace driversRoundsOther drivers
Alan Docking Racing A1 Team AustraliaAlan Jones Ryan Briscoe1, 4-5
Alan Docking Racing A1 Team AustraliaAlan Jones Karl Reindler2-3, 6-8
Alan Docking Racing A1 Team AustraliaAlan Jones Ian Dyk9-11
Arena Motorsport A1 Team GreeceStathis Basios Takis Kaitatzis1-2
Arena Motorsport A1 Team GreeceStathis Basios Nikos Zakos2
Arena Motorsport A1 Team IndiaAtul Gupta Armaan Ebrahim1-5
Arena Motorsport A1 Team IndiaAtul Gupta Narain Karthikeyan6, 8-11
Arena Motorsport A1 Team IndiaAtul Gupta Parthiva Sureshwaren7
Carlin Motorsport A1 Team LebanonTameem Auchi Basil Shaaban1, 3, 5
Carlin Motorsport A1 Team LebanonTameem Auchi Graham Rahal2
Carlin Motorsport A1 Team LebanonTameem Auchi Khalil Beschir4
Carlin Motorsport A1 Team LebanonTameem Auchi Alexander Khateeb6-7
Carlin Motorsport A1 Team LebanonTameem Auchi Allam Khodair8-11
Charouz Racing System A1 Team BrazilEmerson Fittipaldi Tuka Rocha1-2, 5, 7 Ruben Carrapatoso
Alexandre Negrão
Luiz Razia
Charouz Racing System A1 Team BrazilEmerson Fittipaldi Raphael Matos3-4, 6 Ruben Carrapatoso
Alexandre Negrão
Luiz Razia
Charouz Racing System A1 Team BrazilEmerson Fittipaldi Bruno Junqueira8-9, 11 Ruben Carrapatoso
Alexandre Negrão
Luiz Razia
Charouz Racing System A1 Team BrazilEmerson Fittipaldi Vítor Meira10 Ruben Carrapatoso
Alexandre Negrão
Luiz Razia
Charouz Racing System A1 Team Czech RepublicAntonin Charouz Tomáš Kostka1 Jaroslav Janiš
Charouz Racing System A1 Team Czech RepublicAntonin Charouz Tomáš Enge2-4, 6-8 Jaroslav Janiš
Charouz Racing System A1 Team Czech RepublicAntonin Charouz Jaroslav Janiš5, 9 Jaroslav Janiš
Charouz Racing System A1 Team Czech RepublicAntonin Charouz Filip Salaquarda10 Jaroslav Janiš
Charouz Racing System A1 Team Czech RepublicAntonin Charouz Jan Charouz11 Jaroslav Janiš
DAMS A1 Team FranceJean Paul Driot Nicolas Lapierre1-5
DAMS A1 Team FranceJean Paul Driot Loïc Duval6-8, 11
DAMS A1 Team FranceJean Paul Driot Jean Karl Vernay9-10
DAMS A1 Team South AfricaTokyo Sexwale Adrian Zaugg1, 3-4, 8-9, 11 Gavin Cronje
Jennifer Murray
DAMS A1 Team South AfricaTokyo Sexwale Stephen Simpson2 Gavin Cronje
Jennifer Murray
DAMS A1 Team South AfricaTokyo Sexwale Alan van der Merwe5-7, 10 Gavin Cronje
Jennifer Murray
A1 Team Great Britain A1 Team Great BritainTony Clements
John Surtees		 Darren Manning1
A1 Team Great Britain A1 Team Great BritainTony Clements
John Surtees		 Robbie Kerr2, 4-8, 10-11
A1 Team Great Britain A1 Team Great BritainTony Clements
John Surtees		 Oliver Jarvis3
A1 Team Indonesia A1 Team IndonesiaN/A Ananda Mikola1-10
A1 Team Indonesia A1 Team IndonesiaN/A Moreno Soeprapto11
John Village Automotive A1 Team CanadaWade Cherwayko James Hinchcliffe1-3, 6-9
John Village Automotive A1 Team CanadaWade Cherwayko Sean McIntosh4-5, 10-11
A1 Team Malaysia A1 Team MalaysiaAlex Yoong Alex YoongAll Fairuz Fauzy
Max Motorsport A1 Team SwitzerlandMax Welti Sébastien Buemi1-2, 6-7, 10-11
Max Motorsport A1 Team SwitzerlandMax Welti Neel Jani3-5, 8
Max Motorsport A1 Team SwitzerlandMax Welti Marcel Fässler9
Performance Racing A1 Team PakistanArif Hussain Nur B. AliAll
Racing for Holland A1 Team The NetherlandsJan Lammers Jeroen Bleekemolen1-9, 11
Racing for Holland A1 Team The NetherlandsJan Lammers Renger van der Zande9-10
Status Grand Prix A1 Team IrelandMark Kershaw Michael Devaney1-4
Status Grand Prix A1 Team IrelandMark Kershaw Richard Lyons5-11
Super Nova Racing A1 Team GermanyWilli Weber Nico Hülkenberg1-8, 10-11
Super Nova Racing A1 Team GermanyWilli Weber Christian Vietoris9
Super Nova Racing A1 Team New ZealandColin Giltrap Matt Halliday1, 3, 8, 11
Super Nova Racing A1 Team New ZealandColin Giltrap Jonny Reid2, 4-7, 9-10
Team Astromega A1 Team ChinaLiu Yu Congfu Cheng1-4, 10-11
Team Astromega A1 Team ChinaLiu Yu Ho-Pin Tung5-9
Team Astromega A1 Team PortugalLuis Vicente Álvaro Parente8-9, 11
Team Astromega A1 Team PortugalLuis Vicente João Urbano10
Team Ghinzani A1 Team ItalyPiercarlo Ghinzani Alessandro Pier Guidi1-2 Michele Rugolo
Team Ghinzani A1 Team ItalyPiercarlo Ghinzani Enrico Toccacelo3-11 Michele Rugolo
Teamex A1 Team MexicoJuan Cortina
Julio Jáuregui		 Salvador Durán1-9
Teamex A1 Team MexicoJuan Cortina
Julio Jáuregui		 Sergio Pérez10
Teamex A1 Team MexicoJuan Cortina
Julio Jáuregui		 Juan Pablo Garcia11
West Surrey Racing A1 Team SingaporeN.A. Christian Murchison1, 3-4, 6-8
West Surrey Racing A1 Team SingaporeN.A. Denis Lian2
West Surrey Racing A1 Team USARick Weidlinger Philip Giebler1-5, 7
West Surrey Racing A1 Team USARick Weidlinger Ryan Hunter-Reay6
West Surrey Racing A1 Team USARick Weidlinger Jonathan Summerton8-11

3 A1GP Teams did not participate in all races.
Jennifer Murray, from South Africa was the first ever woman to enter in an A1 Grand Prix weekend. She drove in the rookie session of her home race in Durban round.

Races

The second A1 Grand Prix season is scheduled to consist of 11 races, held in 10 different countries. Each race is to be run over a three-day weekend, including a practice session on each of Friday and Saturday before a qualifying session on Saturday, and then two races on Sunday.
There are some changes in weekend program for second season:
A 12th race had been scheduled to have been held in Brazil; however, on 17 January 2007 the A1GP organisation announced that as a result of a delay in obtaining a local terrestrial television agreement then the event would be cancelled.

Standings

Notable 2006-07 season happenings

Beijing Incident

The first Chinese round of the 2006/07 A1GP took place on the streets of Beijing. However, the tight hairpin at the end of the backstraight was far too tight for the cars to negotiate safely, as there was literally, a 180 degree left turn. Cars were running wide and stopping mid corner, therefore the sessions were red flagged.
A shorter circuit was created, creating another less tighter hairpin halfway up the straight, bypassing most of the old straight. This corner was still not perfect as drivers still ran wide despite the corner being wider, and had to avoid the pitlane entry barrier. It had to suffice, though, because otherwise the race would have to be cancelled.
However, another problem arose in qualifying, when manhole covers on the roads were coming undone due to the racing cars' high downforce and low center of gravity. Grid positions were decided based on practice times. Some advertising banners also came loose around the circuit.
It was announced the races would start behind the safety car, as the first corner was also deemed unsafe.
Both races were uneventful, particularly the Sprint Race which took place almost entirely behind the safety car after course officials failed to remove a single spun car in a timely fashion.

April Fools' hoax

On 1 April 2006, during the penultimate round of the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season in Shanghai, a fake timetable of the 2006-2007 season was published. This schedule included a night time race in Lapland, an A1GP USA race in Baghdad, a race in Middle-earth at 'The Ring', a Venice Street Race as well as a Tibetan hill climb. In addition, it outlined special regulations, such as requiring only the Cornettos be catered for the Venice race, that "cars will arrive flatpacked for the IKEA Cup race in Narnia, so extra time will be required for their assembly", and that for the hill climb, half the cars will start from the top, and half will start from the bottom. A race in South Los Angeles was to have drive-by penalties.