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Old 14 Apr 2009, 16:49 (Ref:2440606)   #1
kerrmanningjarv
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A makeshift A1 Team GBR indeed!

Autosport described the British team that took to the track at Algarve as "makeshift" and, through some pictorial investigative work, I have come to the conclusion that this was very accurate.

In all the pictures of the weekend, I could find only 1 picture in which a pit crew man in an A1 Team GBR uniform was present - http://teams.a1gp-photo.com/gbr/view...e.asp?id=26794 the man at the front of the car wheeling it into the garage. Now, it could be that some GBR staff stayed on and weren't photographed, but I have a feeling most of them have gone, replaced by a smattering of engineers and mechanics from up and down the pits.

I read on the official A1GP Fanzone that the German crew was running the GBR car, and I did some more snooping. I found this - http://teams.a1gp-photo.com/gbr/view...e.asp?id=27171 - the man Dan is talking to works for the German team, as seen here - http://a1gp-photo.com/viewpicture.asp?id=23939. So while it may or may not have been run by the whole German crew, it definitely had some involvement from the German team.

Then comes the interesting part - going back to this picture http://teams.a1gp-photo.com/gbr/view...e.asp?id=27171, if you view it in high res, you can see that the collar of Dan's overalls says "A1..." and then something is taped over with black tape. Seemingly, they are a pair of Adam Khan's overalls (they look Pakistani), replacing the GBR overalls that Dan wore in Taupo - http://teams.a1gp-photo.com/gbr/view...e.asp?id=24962. Perhaps his Taupo overalls didn't fit too well, or maybe A1GP isn't letting anyone from the team wear A1 Team GBR gear now.

Take what you will from this long and crazy topic but it does seem that GBR have very few staff now, as expected after administration.
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 18:30 (Ref:2440690)   #2
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It was the A1GP crew who normally run the test cars/ John Watson car!
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 18:43 (Ref:2440695)   #3
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That actually ties in with the German crew because I read in an interview with Rolf Beisswanger, German team boss (translated from German), that half of the German crew is made up of "English guys who have experience of the car" - so I guess some of the German mechanics are those who run the test car, and they shared with GBR at the weekend?

Well if it was the test team mechanics running GBR, then they weren't very "makeshift" as those guys know the car well I should think .
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 21:23 (Ref:2440820)   #4
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Is there something political about the team GB driver wearing the Pakistani team colours with whats going on in the UK at the moment? Perhaps this is a different subject not related to motorsport........
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 21:25 (Ref:2440822)   #5
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I think maybe they just looked around for overalls and Adam Khan's empty overalls were sitting around, as he was doing stupid donuts in the desert in his Renault ones .
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 21:44 (Ref:2440845)   #6
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It was mean't tongue in cheek.
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 22:13 (Ref:2440866)   #7
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Yes and I was using it as an oppurtunity to bash Adam Khan, my favourite topic of insults at the moment...
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Old 14 Apr 2009, 23:27 (Ref:2440909)   #8
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I think his father Ian was a better peddler I remember him driving a Lola T88/50 in the British F3000 finale round at Brands in 1989 and he acquitted himself well.
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Old 15 Apr 2009, 09:33 (Ref:2441154)   #9
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I think his father Ian was a better peddler I remember him driving a Lola T88/50 in the British F3000 finale round at Brands in 1989 and he acquitted himself well.

If you are refering to Adams father his name is Kane, not Ian
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Old 15 Apr 2009, 13:26 (Ref:2441363)   #10
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If you are refering to Adams father his name is Kane, not Ian
I thought he was the son of Ian Khan the racer from the 80's! Thanks for correcting me i've been mis-informed along the line.
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Old 15 Apr 2009, 22:22 (Ref:2441792)   #11
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Mekola should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridMekola should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridMekola should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
How strange... Is John Surtees' involvement in Formula Two (via his son) related to all this???
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Old 15 Apr 2009, 22:24 (Ref:2441794)   #12
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Surtees quit on Team GBR before season 3... so probably not (although they could have had very bad financial problems in season 3 too and hidden them).
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Old 4 May 2009, 12:12 (Ref:2455139)   #13
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The GBR team at Brands Hatch, happily, seemed to be mostly genuine Team GBR staff.

http://teams.a1gp-photo.com/gbr/view...e.asp?id=28220

Four of the five mechanics from their website are in the picture, along with an extra one on the far right who I don't know. Also pictured are tech director Paul Bellringer and race engineer James Goodfield

Then there are the two guys in the GBR shirts, one of which seems to be John Wickham (A1GP General Manager, Technical & Operations) and the other one looking official too. They are probably carried over from Algarve when there was test team involvement with the GBR car.

In our pit-stops one or two German mechanics helped out, but it was good to see many of GBR's old faces were around.
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Old 4 May 2009, 12:14 (Ref:2455140)   #14
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If anyone knows the guy second from right (brown hair, sunglasses) in the GBR shirt, it would be good to know.
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Old 7 May 2009, 19:34 (Ref:2457460)   #15
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kerrmanningjarv should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
This is the guy I mean - maybe he works for A1GP's test team, or for the German team, but was a British staff member for a day?
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Old 7 May 2009, 22:23 (Ref:2457570)   #16
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The guy to his left isn't John Wickham, it's Sam Boyle. Lyndhurst coordinator.
It is the original team though, except for a different data engineer.
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Old 7 May 2009, 22:34 (Ref:2457581)   #17
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SALEEN S7R should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridSALEEN S7R should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridSALEEN S7R should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
The whole team is a joke these days IMO. Ever since the team announced its split from Arden results have gone downhill fast, im not saying Arden are the best team in the world but they were certainly doing a better job with the cars than the current team are doing. Yes I know the current car is a Ferrari and the old car was a Lola and that Arden have never had any input in running the Ferrari for team GB but going by their form with the older car it would suggest that they would probably be doing signifcantly better than the current team are. It is worth remembering too that the current team also ran the Lola for a season or 2, and that is when team GB's fortunes started to decline.
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Old 8 May 2009, 00:44 (Ref:2457620)   #18
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The guy to his left isn't John Wickham, it's Sam Boyle. Lyndhurst coordinator.
It is the original team though, except for a different data engineer.
You're right, it is Sam Boyle. I knew it wasn't John Wickham, but kept quiet because I couldn't put a name to the face, but now I recognise Sam.

Sorry, can't help with the other guy although he looks vaguely familiar.
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Old 8 May 2009, 06:08 (Ref:2457715)   #19
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The whole team is a joke these days IMO. Ever since the team announced its split from Arden results have gone downhill fast, im not saying Arden are the best team in the world but they were certainly doing a better job with the cars than the current team are doing. Yes I know the current car is a Ferrari and the old car was a Lola and that Arden have never had any input in running the Ferrari for team GB but going by their form with the older car it would suggest that they would probably be doing signifcantly better than the current team are. It is worth remembering too that the current team also ran the Lola for a season or 2, and that is when team GB's fortunes started to decline.
I beg to differ - with Arden they got 0 wins and finished 3rd, without Arden they got 5 wins and finished 3rd two years in a row. So they didn't really get any worse without Arden did they?
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Old 8 May 2009, 06:09 (Ref:2457717)   #20
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The guy to his left isn't John Wickham, it's Sam Boyle. Lyndhurst coordinator.
It is the original team though, except for a different data engineer.
Don't mean to sound stupid but what us Lyndhurst? Sounds vaguely familiar but can't place it.
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Old 8 May 2009, 08:21 (Ref:2457751)   #21
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All teams which are not finacially independant, (A lot, India, GB, USA, Brazil, Australia, POR, ect....) are finaced by A1GP through a company called Lyndhurst. Hence the term "Lyndhurst team" which you often hear.
Also I would say that GB's performance problems pretty well run inconjunction with A1's finacial problems. Some of the A1's teams have been able to reduce this effect to there performance by finding alternative funding to subsidise A1's shortfalls.
Lack of funds means compromise!
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Old 8 May 2009, 09:48 (Ref:2457802)   #22
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Its no conincedence that Ireland won the title. A1 couldnt provide gear ratios or springs to teams, as they had not paid suppliers. So Ireland (who are not a Lyndhurst team) went to the suppliers directly, and bought everything they needed.

For the last 2 rounds, A1 released a list of mandatory springs, so teams could only use springs readily available to all teams, in an attempt to re-level the playing field.
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Old 8 May 2009, 11:01 (Ref:2457858)   #23
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It did say in the Brands Hatch program that Teddy Yip Jr's investment in Team Ireland was a catalyst for their success - too right if it has led to a technical advantage. What happened to "a level playing field"?

I would say that teams like China and RSA, who like GBR and India dramatically lost competitiveness, are also series-funded? I would doubt that those teams had lost so much competitiveness just through engineering and drivers - we are talking about experienced teams like Astromega and Dams here.

BTW what gears/springs did the A1-funded teams use - surely you need to have such things for the car to run? Were they old ones or cast-offs, or did they have to borrow them?
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Old 8 May 2009, 11:39 (Ref:2457887)   #24
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The gearbox was delivered to teams with a standard ratio set installed. And A1 only had a handful of different ratios at the begining of the season, hence the reason why some teams went directly to Xtrac to but them. The same for the springs.

Some teams that were technology sharing, such as the 4 Dams and Supernova teams did a lot of in-house sharing.
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Old 8 May 2009, 11:46 (Ref:2457897)   #25
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Odd then that France seemed to have a lot more pace than South Africa for most of the season - RSA noticeabley nose-dived from 96 points last year to just 19 this year.
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