2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season

The A1GP 2006/2007 season was held from 29 September 2006 to 29 April 2007, a total of eleven tracks. As a world champion Germany emerged.

• 5.1 system to determine the starting order of the feature race 5.1.1 example

Overview

The 2006/2007 season was the second of the A1GP series. It was dominated by Team Germany, the reach with Nico Hülkenberg at the wheel of nine wins and was finally able to celebrate the championship for the first time. The second place went to New Zealand with three race wins, followed by twice winning team from the UK, which was able to repeat his last year's placement. Race wins were also of Team South Africa, will Team Malaysia ( three times), Team Netherlands, Team Italy and Team Switzerland.

Before the season series was founder Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum Maktoum sensationalist his resignation as A1GP Chairman and simultaneously selling its shares Series known. Successor as chairman was his former deputy and Serienmitgründer Tony Teixeira. The transaction with the British investment company RAB Capital plc was completed in December.

Car

The unit continues to be the Lola - Zytek car with Cooper Tires tires was used, see A1GP cars.

Team

On the season, a total of 24 teams participate (see team and driver overview), including with Singapore and Greece two newcomers. The announced attendance of A1 Team Turkey fell through. The teams from Austria, Japan and Russia were no longer on the show.

Again, not all entered teams to continuous. So lacked Team Portugal due to financial problems in the first seven race weekends of the season. After the Portuguese financial group Banif Group was acquired as a new main sponsor, there was in Durban his comeback on the track. The team from Singapore did not occur in Sentul, because regular driver Christian Murchison was prevented due to a back injury and a replacement driver could not be found. One in the main race had moved to Durban shoulder injury Murchison finally took care of the non-participation in the last three race weekends. Team Greece took part only in the first two events in Zandvoort and Brno. After that, it no longer made ​​its appearance, which was initially justified by the restructuring of the team and the unavailability of the selected strain due to driver whose military service.

Team and driver overview

• Explanation: Small -written drivers took part only in the second or third workout.

Race Calendar

The calendar of the 2006/2007 season included again eleven race weekends:

Before the season was 30-31. August held an official test at Silverstone.

The paper published in the first calendar for December foreseen race weekend at the Dubai Autodrome was probably deleted without replacement during the exit Sheikh Maktums. The event at the Sentul Circuit was then submitted from April to December. The Beijing weekend was supposed to take place a week earlier. The planned for mid-March race weekend in Brazil was taken because of the absence of a free-TV broadcast of the series in the Brazilian television during the season from the racing calendar.

The race weekend at the Beijing Street Circuit was overshadowed by problems with the track. At the beginning of the first training found the driver that the hairpin at the end of the long straight, was unable to cope despite previous track control and acceptance by the FIA ​​, even at full steering lock. The session was then terminated, canceled the second training and the line shortened overnight to lay the hairpin to a point where a larger turning radius could be guaranteed. However, the curve remained treacherous after the transfer, as the cars now at the output of the pit entry and the associated boundary wall annäherten strong. After completing its renovation measures the third training took place early Saturday lunch, which also had to be canceled after 25 minutes but after had broken curve between 3 and 4, a manhole cover from the anchor. The same problem had occurred in 2004 at the invitation of the DTM race at the Shanghai Pudong Street Circuit. Since the safeguards claimed the afternoon, qualifying could not be carried out, the starting grid for the sprint race was determined by the (intermediate) result of the third workout.

Rule Changes

The maximum duration of the sprint race was shortened to 20 minutes, and the main race extended to 70 minutes. The break between the two races was increased to three and a half hours, also had the mandatory pit stop in the main race now be done in a certain time window. The first training session was divided into two 25-minute sessions, which were separated by a ten-minute break, and now the so-called rookies remained reserved ( "Rookie Training" ). As a rookie first was a driver who had been used less than 25 years old and not more than three A1GP race. The pauses between the individual qualifying segments were reduced to five minutes; the warmup was abolished. The starting grid for the main race has now been determined by a system which the qualifying, the result of the Sprint race and the fastest lap of the race considered herein, see below. In the sprint race, only the first six teams now got points on the mode 6-5-4-3-2-1, awarding points in the feature race was unchanged.

Even after the second race weekend at Brno far-reaching changes have been made in the ruleset again. Thus, the novel system was replaced again to determine the starting order of the feature race through the system from last season after it was met with criticism due to its complexity. A change in the definition of the " Rookies " was subjected to who was allowed to have now not be older than 27 years and not more than six races in A1GP disputed. Moreover, were now also drivers who for a " motorsport developing country " - ie China, Greece, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan and Singapore - competed entitled to participate in the rookie training.

System to determine the starting order of the feature race

In the system, which came into use only in the race weekend at Zandvoort and Brno, the start position, end position and placement in the list of fastest race laps in a sprint race in points were converted and added. The team with the least points in the feature race started from pole position at " a tie " the finish decided in a sprint race.

Example

Thus Netherlands team started the main race ahead of team France.

Results

Reporting

In the German-speaking area of the pay- TV channel Premiere was still the only one who transferred the series. The qualifying and the main event were shown still live, the sprint race has now been aired as a 1:1 repetition in front of the main race.