My ideas for A1GP (Season 2006/2007)

[mabs_nsx]

Teams (1 car)
1. Argentina
2. Australia
3. Austria
4. Bahrain
5. Belgium
6. Brazil
7. Canada
8. China
9. Colombia
10. Czech Republic
11. Denmark
12. Finland
13. France
14. Germany
15. Greece
16. Hungary
17. India
18. Indonesia
19. Ireland
20. Italy
21. Japan
22. Lebanon
23. Malaysia
24. Mexico
25. Netherlands
26. New Zealand
27. Norway
28. Pakistan
29. Poland
30. Portugal
31. Qatar
32. Russia
33. Singapore
34. South Africa
35. South Korea
36. Spain
37. Sweden
38. Switzerland
39. Turkey
40. United Arab Emirates
41. United Kingdom
42. United States Of America

Drivers (1-3)
The best and most experienced drivers.

Season 2006/2007 Qualifying
The top 30 teams will qualify for Season 2006/2007.
Teams 1-21
August 4
12:00 – 14:00 Qualifying 1

August 5
12:00 – 14:00 Qualifying 2

Teams 22-42
August 12
12:00 – 14:00 Qualifying 1

August 13
12:00 – 14:00 Qualifying 2

Season 2006/2007 Race Calendar
The top 15 countries in the 2005/2006 Championship (Excluding Switzerland) all get races. The winners will get the season opener and the 2nd placed team will get the season closer.

Round 1 September 3rd
Round 2 September 17th
Round 3 October 1st
Round 4 October 15th
Round 5 October 29th
Round 6 November 12th
Round 7 November 26th
Round 8 December 10th
Round 9 December 31st
Round 10 January 14th
Round 11 January 28th
Round 12 February 11th
Round 13 February 25th
Round 14 March 11th
Round 15 March 25th

Race Weekend Schedule
Friday
11:00 - 12:00 Practice 1
14:00 - 15:00 Practice 2

Saturday
8:00 – 9:00 Practice 3
11:00 - 12:00 Qualifying 1
16:00 - 16:30 Race 1 (rolling start)

Sunday
11:00-12:00 Qualifying 2
15:30-16:30 Race 2 (standing start)

Points System (Races 1 and 2)
Qualifying
Pole=1 point

Race
1st=10 points
2nd=9 points
3rd=8 points
4th=7 points
5th=6 points
6th=5 points
7th=4 points
8th=3 points
9th=2 points
10th=1 points

Fastest lap=1 point

TV Coverage
Every country with a team gets TV coverage on both FTA TV and Pay TV.
Pay TV. Live
FTA TV Delayed (Home race Live)

[mabs_nsx]

1-3 hours delayed

[Kicking-back]

mabs - I know you have an obsession for lists and for changing things - but remember A1GP is Sheik Maktoum's creation - and the majority of what you have said is totally unrealistic.

Having a race on Saturday and Sunday is pointless - and your proposal to have 42 entries then "knock them down" to thirty would be a commercial disaster.

How would a team get sponsors on the basis of "we might be out before the season starts".

Learn to enjoy motor-racing, mabs, rather than feeling you have to change it all.

[CleanTone]

anyway, what if it rains on 12 and 13 august?

[Dr Venom]

the sheik flys everyone to dubai ........

[mabs_nsx]

Originally Posted by CleanTone

anyway, what if it rains on 12 and 13 august?

Obviously you would have to make sure qualifying is dry on all days. If not it can be postponed until its dry.

[mabs_nsx]

Teams (1 car)
1. Argentina
2. Australia
3. Austria
4. Bahrain
5. Belgium
6. Brazil
7. Canada
8. China
9. Colombia
10. Czech Republic
11. Denmark
12. Finland
13. France
14. Germany
15. Greece
16. Hungary
17. India
18. Indonesia
19. Ireland
20. Italy
21. Japan
22. Lebanon
23. Malaysia
24. Mexico
25. Netherlands
26. New Zealand
27. Norway
28. Pakistan
29. Poland
30. Portugal
31. Qatar
32. Russia
33. Singapore
34. South Africa
35. South Korea
36. Spain
37. Sweden
38. Switzerland
39. Turkey
40. United Arab Emirates
41. United Kingdom
42. United States Of America

Drivers (1-3)
The best and most experienced drivers.


Season 2006/2007 Race Calendar
The top 15 countries in the 2005/2006 Championship (Excluding Switzerland) all get races. The winners will get the season opener and the 2nd placed team will get the season closer.

Round 1 September 3rd 2006
Round 2 September 17th 2006
Round 3 October 1st 2006
Round 4 October 15th 2006
Round 5 October 29th 2006
Round 6 November 12th 2006
Round 7 November 26th 2006
Round 8 December 10th 2006
Round 9 January 7th 2007
Round 10 January 21st 2007
Round 11 February 4th 2007
Round 12 February 18th 2007
Round 13 March 4th 2007
Round 14 March 18th 2007
Round 15 April 1st 2007

Race Weekend Schedule
Friday
11:00 – 11:45 Group 1 Practice 1
12:00 - 12:45 Group 2 Practice 1
14:45 - 15:30 Group 1 Practice 2
15:45 - 16:30 Group 2 Practice 2

Saturday
7:00 – 7:45 Group 1 Practice 3
8:00 - 8:45 Group 2 Practice 3
10:45 - 11:30 Group 1 Qualifying 1
11:45 - 12:30 Group 2 Qualifying 1
14:30 - 15:30 Group 1 Qualifying 2
15:45 - 16:45 Group 2 Qualifying 2

Sunday
13:00-13:30 Race 1 (rolling start)
15:30-16:30 Race 2 (standing start)

Group 1=Teams 1-21
Group 2=Teams 22-42
Qualifying
Drivers can do an ulimited amount of laps and the top 30 qualify for the race. Qualifying 1 is for race 1 and qualifying 2 is for race 2. I hate how they start the second race were they finished in the first. It is a stupid idea.

Points System
Qualifying 1
Pole=1 point

Race 1
1st=10 points
2nd=9 points
3rd=8 points
4th=7 points
5th=6 points
6th=5 points
7th=4 points
8th=3 points
9th=2 points
10th=1 points

Fastest lap=1 point

Qualifying 2
Pole=2 points

Race 2
1st=20 points
2nd=18 points
3rd=16 points
4th=14oints
5th=12oints
6th=10oints
7th=8 points
8th=6 points
9th=4 points
10th=2 points

Fastest lap=2 points

TV Coverage
Every country with a team gets TV coverage on both FTA TV and Pay TV.
Pay TV. Live
FTA TV Delayed (Home race Live)

[mabs_nsx]

I don't have a problem with the way A1GP is now but 1 thing that needs to change is the TV coverage. I don't know how it is in other countries but in Australia the TV coverage is very bad. Sure we get the races live on Fox Sports but not everyone has Foxel and on FTA there is only 1 hour of highlights a week after every race and to make it worse it is shown no earlier than 11:30pm on a Sunday night. The Malaysian round will be shown at 1:00am on a Monday morning. That is no acceptable! Also France is leading the championship and they don't get any TV coverage. (Corect me if im wrong)

[Kicking-back]

mabs - your obsession with tv strikes again.

Just because you don't have Fox does not mean they shouldn't have the coverage.

That's life.

I'd like a Mercedes, but I don't go demanding it.

If you want to watch the coverage, get a subscription to Fox.

End of.

[Hepatic]

...and at least you GET a highlights package. Sky has exclusive rights here, so no Sky no A1GP. I like it the way it is, tbh. Maybe up the teams to 30-odd, but that'd be it.

[Kiwi3]

What a bizarre post.

Anyone who comes up with six figure sums for a franchise needs to be able to sell sponsorship or a lot of shirts or TV rights in that country - not easy to do if you cannot guarantee you will be racing. Any system therefore needs to ensure that all entrants get to race.

I am sure the Sheik will love your setup - perhaps you should email him, or better still send a courier package with magic wand enclosed.

[Kicking-back]

I'm sure it'll be as successful as mabs similar attempts to revise F1, GP2, ChampCar, IndyCar, Aussie V8s, the Football World Cup and Australian television

[mabs_nsx]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Just because you don't have Fox does not mean they shouldn't have the coverage.

I didn't say that. I said every country with a team should get TV coverage on both FTA TV and Pay TV.

Every race live on Pay TV
Every race delayed on FTA TV (Home race Live)

[garcon]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

I'd like a Mercedes, but I don't go demanding it.

As a Peugeot driver, at least you'd be used to the awful build quality, crap electrics and appalling customer service you get with Mercs these days.

(That's a thought - maybe it's their way of trying to break into the French market...)

Ahem, anyway... fair point on the tv thing. I'll agree with Mabs to the extent that it would be nice if A1GP was available on free tv in all countries, then we wouldn't feel so obliged to pay money to the spawn of the devil in all its forms (Sky, Fox, etc etc). But I honestly don't think it would get the audiences needed to attract the terrestrial channels.

Oh, and Mabs - you're safe at the moment, but any mention of the words "channel" and "ten" in the same sentence will result in posts being warned and pulled. Capiche? I don't really care if you're right - we're bored.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

The only real differences I would suggest to A1GP as it stands are..

Have the designated driver(s) confirmed and announced Mid week rather than on the Friday morning.

Have some sort of external indicator on the cars for when the Power Boost is being used (somewhere viewable from the side and not where the driver behind can see it).

..............
The World feed TV is improving all the time, both in TV direction and also in the graphics IMO, Improvements to the TV coverage in which ever country your viewing in? Well Email your suggestions to that TV company.

[Asa]

Originally Posted by mabs_nsx

Every race live on Pay TV
Every race delayed on FTA TV (Home race Live)

TV stations needs good ratings to justify broadcasting the programs. If they cannot justify it in terms of ratings then it has to be justified by $$$.

[Alwaysfirst]

While I may agree with the above posts about not medling & continuously changing things I do think that some things could be changed to improve the series. Firstly k-b commented earlier that it would be a financial disaster if there were 42(?) teams and they then knocked some out before the season had even started. While I agree I wouldn't have a problem with having more teams with a maximum of 28 slots on the grid with some teams being knocked out of the specific race if there were more than 28 competing teams. Although this may not be hugely popular there is method in my madness! Some teams such as Team Australia have employed some prety lackluster drivers so far such as Christian Jones when there are much better drivers such as Murchison and Power largely being ignored, seemingly because the team boss, Alan Jones, wants to promote his own son. If I was Australian I would be furious about this as this stupid choice of driver is leaving the team at the back end of the field. Things have been improving with the arrival of Davidson but not by much. Larger grids would force teams to really try hard to get the best drivers that their countries had outside of F1.

Also I think that it would make the racing safer as the amount of rolls and large shunts that we have seen so far has been amazing & I don't think that it is down to the drivers trying so hard for the pride of their country. Many of the drivers out there have very little powerful single-seater experience. I also think that the creation of a junior A1 series would help to solve this problem by giving less experienced drivers time to train up to the required standard. This may also have financial benefits for the teams as fewer crashes mean fewer chassis being scrapped due to damage. K-b also said that just because he wants a merc doesn't mean that he goes demanding one-well to get good financial support a sport needs to be popular in the mainstream public. Whatever country you are in how many people in your country could you honestly expect to know about A1GP. In the UK I suspect very few-certainly very few of my friends have even heard of it. Therefore even if it is only on the most minor terrestrial channel (UK's Channel 5) on a very late night spot the sport needs to get itself out there in the open for all to see, not just those with sky, cable, freeview etc.

These things may not be popular but even with the good job that it has done so far A1GP needs to wake up & smell the coffee-it needs to make itself popular with not just us lot on here but everybody else as well & if it doesn't then it will just die out which I think would be much sadder than just loosing some of the fun of the series at the moment.

My rant is over-shower me with abuse I don't care (laughs madly)

[mabs_nsx]

Originally Posted by Alwaysfirst

Some teams such as Team Australia have employed some prety lackluster drivers so far such as Christian Jones when there are much better drivers such as Murchison and Power largely being ignored, seemingly because the team boss, Alan Jones, wants to promote his own son. If I was Australian I would be furious about this as this stupid choice of driver is leaving the team at the back end of the field. Things have been improving with the arrival of Davidson but not by much.

I am getting sick of seeing A1 Team Australia always at the back when if they put better drivers in the car we would probably be in the top 5 in every race. A1 Team Australia has only had 1 good race and that was the first race when Will Power was driving. We was 4th in race 1 and 2nd in race 2.

[Alwaysfirst]

Couldn't agree more mabs. It's sad when Australia has some of the best young talented drivers out there so see a position as good as this one squandered on drivers like Jones.