A1 GP to visit Manchester

[Suze]

See, that does look more like it!

[leonidas]

Great to see this in Manchester - hopefully we'll see a streetrace there soon. The attendence wasn't bad. There was a giant screen of A1Gp in action that looked good - but that was only in Exchange Square.

The main problem was that A1GP had nothing in the way of publicity materials, leaflets or DVDs for sale explaining what A1GP is and who races in it. So people wandered up to the track, looked a bit confused, asked if Jenson Button was racing... and then went shopping. Can't understand why you'd spend £100,000s setting up an event like this and then not bother with basic promo stuff...

[A1 fan]

I didn't make it to the festival but from the pictures i've seen it looked pretty cool. Check out gbr.a1gpphoto.com

[madmed]

Here is a video of the demo in Manchester:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpi-xyt4IQ

[Redracer77]

I like the way the UK drivers were wearing last years overals with Arden covered with black tape

[georges1]

I heared the Lebanese driver beschir did a good show and was very friendly with the crowd i think all series need their stars close from public....and about pakistan and lebanon last year i say GRAHAM RAHAL is using this for his own shame he took the place of the real lebanese drivers but he is not Lebanese at all and they dont know anything about lebanon it is not fair specialy when he race with his american nationality everywhere

[madmed]

Originally Posted by georges1

I heared the Lebanese driver beschir did a good show and was very friendly with the crowd i think all series need their stars close from public....and about pakistan and lebanon last year i say GRAHAM RAHAL is using this for his own shame he took the place of the real lebanese drivers but he is not Lebanese at all and they dont know anything about lebanon it is not fair specialy when he race with his american nationality everywhere

As I sad before graham rahal is racing for a1teamlebanon as he is of lebanese desent. His grand father is born in lebanon and immigrated to USA because of the war. Tony kanaan also is a brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage.

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by madmed

As I sad before graham rahal is racing for a1teamlebanon as he is of lebanese desent. His grand father is born in lebanon and immigrated to USA because of the war. Tony kanaan also is a brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage.

I would agree with Georges that this nationality thing is somewhat contrived? As far as sport is concerned it should be the country that issued your licence.I am fed up with english & scottish flags when the union flag should be used.Americans do not use their state flags in Champcar/IRL why do the Brits?
Maybe I can claim Cornish nationality as my great-grandfather came from there?

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Rob29

I would agree with Georges that this nationality thing is somewhat contrived? As far as sport is concerned it should be the country that issued your licence.

I think an issue with using origin of licence as a means of determining nationality isn't without its problems for there isn't anything stopping a driver obtaining a licence from any other country (for instance Nelson Piquet used a British licence for a time). Whilst in most forms of motorsport this wouldn't be a problem, in A1GP it could be used to obtain a seat with any team, which in my view would lead to nationality being even more contrived. At least with the current system, it does ensure that the driver has at least some connection for the country that they are driving for.

[Kiwi3]

The easist way to avoid arguments like this is to be consistent with other sports. My understanding is that A1GP is similar to football, for example the Trinidad & Tobago squad at the World Cup had a player who had never set foot in that country until the final rounds of the qualifying campaign, however his mother had been born there. As long as this consistency exists I don't see what the problem is.

Anyway, who are we to tell the Rahal family what nationality they are? It is their personal business.

[georges1]

Originally Posted by madmed

As I sad before graham rahal is racing for a1teamlebanon as he is of lebanese desent. His grand father is born in lebanon and immigrated to USA because of the war. Tony kanaan also is a brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage.

Let us open a topis for drivers and nationality problems and hear from everybody please, but about the Rahal i am 100% that his father has never ben in lebanon and was not born there and i have friends saying that AA1 is huge there and the team is getting lot of opposition from the press and fans there, let us open a topic about that