Indo_pak A Friendly Rivalry

[mbathshah]

Originally Posted by spindoctorette

Give the teams a chance. How long did it take for Frank Williams to win a constructors championship,

A1GP is not F1. All the cars are identical so theoretically it is only the driver abd setup which can influence the performance. Also remember heritage has nothing to do with either India or Pakistan. Adam Khan was born in the UK and has 3 seasons in F Renault and F3. Karun has also done a number of seasons in F3. So it is not as though these drivers haven't got the expeience - they quite clearly have. They simply don't have the talent and IMO that is the reason for their very poor performances so far. 4-4.5 seconds off the pace at Estoril. All these new fans who have joined the board and are very Pro-Pakistan is great. However, you have to look at things objectively and not from a flag waving point of view.

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by mbathshah

All these new fans who have joined the board and are very Pro-Pakistan is great. However, you have to look at things objectively and not from a flag waving point of view.

Yes, I am guilty of being a flag waver, but not just of team Pakistan. I'm a flag waver of motorsport, A1GP and every competitor on the track.

btw....good post spindoctorette!

[highspeedfan]

Originally Posted by mbathshah

A1GP is not F1. All the cars are identical so theoretically it is only the driver abd setup which can influence the performance. Also remember heritage has nothing to do with either India or Pakistan. Adam Khan was born in the UK and has 3 seasons in F Renault and F3. Karun has also done a number of seasons in F3. So it is not as though these drivers haven't got the expeience - they quite clearly have. They simply don't have the talent and IMO that is the reason for their very poor performances so far. 4-4.5 seconds off the pace at Estoril. All these new fans who have joined the board and are very Pro-Pakistan is great. However, you have to look at things objectively and not from a flag waving point of view.

Hi I'm new to this forum ...I just wanted to point out that racing is a combination of talent and equipment. Granted in A1GP the equipment is the
same basically but the teams still have quite a bit of input in how they set up
the car ....this comes from experience. So even if you had crack driver and the car setup is crap that would result in considerable difference in lap times.... yes as much as 2 to 3 seconds off the leaders or even more.

France, Brazil, USA and the likes have been in racing for long and have
many professional teams who have worked with all the racing chassis available.

Pakistan in that respect have an advantage over India since they have a professional racing team. India on the other hand have an all indian team with limited racing exposure. So taking this into account I'd probably say that Karun/Aarman would probably be operating at 85-90% their potentail. I'd probably give the Indian team this whole season to come to grips with this sport. Next season I'm expecting to see them probaly 1.5 secs off the pace.

That should put them in a very strong position to grab the occassional podiums that may arise on account of attrition by other teams.

[Stephen Green]

Good points and a very warm welcome to ten-tenths

[farooqaziz]

what happened to pakistan,? They were 10 before the safty car & after it they were 15. But still good race by both indo- pak. There rivalry is getting better

[spindoctorette]

Delay in sending out the safety car meant that Adam missed the opportunity to come into the pit and went around, dropping from 10th as others pitted infront - in fact at one point he was P8! Still finished 12th over the line and then 11th due to the Irish infringement. Certainly shows he is making progress.

[mbathshah]

Actually he was very slow in the race. Only Lebanon were slower and even Ebrahim of India put in a quicker lap than Khan in the Feature Race. Just a lot of Non Finishers flattered to deceive as far as India Pakistan etc were concerned.

[Druid]

hello again,

. tbh i dont think thers any indo-pak rivalry like we see in cricket. the main reason being that A1GP is not India vs pakistan(like it happens in cricket) but rather its india and pakistan vS 23 other different nations, all competing against each other.so there cant really be cricket like rivalry in A1GP. second thing i have noticed is that a1gp isnt getting as much coverage in pakistani/indian newspapers as cricket does. again the main reason being india and pakistan's lack of competitveness in a1gp. the day india or pakistan finish on podium , iam sure we will see quite a alot of headlines on the newspapers but it will never be able to match the coverage cricket gets. also id like to point out that theres no point of criticising drivers like karun chandok or adam khan. adam is only 20 and the only reason why he isnt performing as well as we would like him to is because of his lack of experience. i really think that it's too early to criticise any of the A1GP drivers simply because we have only had about 4 races and we cannot judge any driver untill the season is nearly over. and puhleez dont bring that "lack of talent" thing. if thats the case then matthias lauda and christian jones shouldnt even be driving cos they are both son of legends and have done alot more racing than adam khan and yet they havent produced any results in any formula they have participated in(Specially lauda jnr. i know Christian jones has won asian F3 but lauda jnr has won diddly squat).

[mbathshah]

I'm not a fan of Jones or Lauda either. However, I was replying to a post specifically on India and Pakistan. There is lack of any real depth in talent in A1GP (apart from 4 or 5 teams) which may be it's demise - the quality of drivers IMO is simply not there especially given all the pre-season hype by the organisers. As an example Yoong was absolutely crushed in F1 but seems to be putting in some very good performances in A1. That to me underscores the very poor opposition and not that Yoong has suddenly improved his driving as much as his recent A1GP results seem to indicate.

[Go-Pakistan]

With reports that Narain Karthikeyan is without a 2006 race seat in F1, he may spend the year testing for a higher profile team, is it possible he could be seen in the A1 team india car for the '06 races before the F1 season begins?

Or does his management think this would be a backward step seeing as he is already in F1.

[Kiwi3]

I think Yoong is better than he looked in F1. He wasn't that bad in the junior categories after all but he completely lost his confidence in F1, and was hounded by the Malaysian media I am told.

Karthikeyan seems to be chasing a testing role in F1 and until that is no longer a possibility I think he will concentrate on that. A1 would be a logical place to go if F1 doesn't happen though.

As for this weekend, Sepang will be totally new to Adam Khan (who has gone backwards since Brands at tracks he doesn't know), whereas Chandhok and Ebrahim have both driven there before in Asian based series. So it could be an interesting little rivalry.

No offense to Ebrahim but he needs more experience, I hope Chandhok is back in the car, anyone know where he has been the last few weeks?

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

No offense to Ebrahim but he needs more experience, I hope Chandhok is back in the car, anyone know where he has been the last few weeks?

Ebrahim's dad owns the team........so Chandhok is sitting out a few races.

Ebrahim has done well recently, I believe he won a race in the FBMW asia series. He has age on his side, only 16 and driving in A1GP. I believe I read somewhere that he is looking at British F3 for 2006, that would be the logical next step and he certainly has the funds to take to a top team like Carlin.

[bocster]

yeh i met Ebrahim in sydney, really nice guy. frigin good driver for a 16 year old, he was keeping good pace.

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by bocster

yeh i met Ebrahim in sydney, really nice guy. frigin good driver for a 16 year old, he was keeping good pace.

with age, experience and financial backing all on his side, surely an F1 career awaits?

[bocster]

I think Yoong is better than he looked in F1. He wasn't that bad in the junior categories after all but he completely lost his confidence in F1, and was hounded by the Malaysian media I am told.

ive got alot of respect for Yoong (i know thats an unpopular comment). he was driving a really really bad minardi and had webber and alonso as teammates.following webber in the minardi era it was clear that that car sucked bad . Im not saying that he's an undiscover star or anything ,just that he's not as bad as it looked

[Kiwi3]

Don't get me wrong I am not saying Ebrahim is bad, I just think A1 is too much too soon. He would be better off doing F3 first and then driving next season or 2007. Asian F.BMW is hardly good preparation for racing at this level, the danger is that his reputation or confidence could be damaged. Then again Ebrahim Snr is very very experienced in motorsport so should know what he is doing.

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Then again Ebrahim Snr is very very experienced in motorsport so should know what he is doing.

I haven't heard of him (Ebrahim Snr), was he a racer?

[Kiwi3]

Yes he was. He raced in Asian Formula 2000 which then become Asian F. BMW when BMW got involved. He stopped racing in about 1997. He had a good scrap with Christian Jones in the celebrity support race at Sepang over the weekend.

I completely take back what I said about Ebrahim Jnr. He was right up there (midfield in the Sprint race) and holding his own. Very impressive for a 16th year old to be mixing it with much more experienced drivers who have raced in Europe. A star in the making. He was a couple of spots ahead of Adam Khan as well...

I was at Sepang and was told by someone who works in motorsport in Asia that Chandhok probably won't be seen in the car again (although his name is still on the side of it). They won't need him if Ebrahim keeps improving at his current rate.

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

I think Yoong is better than he looked in F1. He wasn't that bad in the junior categories after all but he completely lost his confidence in F1, and was hounded by the Malaysian media I am told.

Zero top five finishes in F3000 and zero wins in British F3? That's not F1 pedigree.

[Kiwi3]

I didn't say he was.

[ensign14]

Just that "not that bad in the junior categories" seems odd when his record is worse than that of Christian Horner, Paolo delle Piane, Guido Dacco, Vittorio Zoboli and dozens upon dozens of others. I don't think that makes him better than he looked in F1, I think vice versa; he looked better in F1 than his record gave him credit for, he should have been an Amati compared to van de Poele (i.e. 6 seconds slower) than getting within a couple of secs.

[Kicking-back]

If you use F3 and F3000 as the benchmark, one could say Kimi Raikkonen's record was worse than the drivers you mention

[mbathshah]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

If you use F3 and F3000 as the benchmark, one could say Kimi Raikkonen's record was worse than the drivers you mention

What do you mean by this comment? As far as I know Kimi neither raced in F3 nor in F3000?

[ensign14]

Yes, so Yoong's best result in F3000 is de facto better than Kimi's...as is Nissany's...

[Kicking-back]

Exactly my point