A1GP: Malaysia Continues To Give Handicap To Other Nations

Alex rues set up problems in Germany...(click image to enlarge)

With qualifying driver doing two one-hour free practice sessions instead of three.

Malaysia continues with the policy of exposing both their drivers in the three free practice sessions with Alex Yoong driving two sessions and Fairuz Fauzy driving one session in Germany's round 2. As a result of this handicap given to other teams who use the same drivers for all the three sessions, it had meant less time on the track for the Malaysian team's qualifying driver to dial in the optimum settings for the car on an unfamiliar circuit. Malaysia had thus qualified 18th for the race.

Many Malaysian fans in forum boards across the world have debated against this policy which was originally adopted by the Malaysian team in the opening round two weeks ago in Brands Hatch and felt that it might well be better for using one driver for the whole weekend of each round. Fairuz could have driven the entire weekend at Lausitz's EuroSpeedway for example and Alex then take over the wheel for Malaysia for the entire weekend in round 3 at Portugal, for example, if the team's intention is to give both the drivers the chance to race.

Another method of rotating drivers is to use the driver who is more experience in any particular circuits and if both drivers have no experience on any circuit, Fairuz should be nominated for the weekend as Alex may have been to more circuits than Fairuz had.

The rotation for the rest of the 10 rounds can then look something like this: Rd. 3 Estoril, Portugal - Fairuz; Rd. 4 Eastern Creek, Australia - Alex; Rd. 5 Sepang, Malaysia - Alex; Rd. 6 Dubai, UAE - Fairuz; Rd. 7 Sentul, Indonesia - Alex; Rd. 8 South Africa - Fairuz; Rd. 9 Curitiba, Brazil - Fairuz; Rd. 10 Monterrey, Mexico - Alex; Rd. 11 Laguna Seca, USA - Alex; and Rd. 12 Shanghai, China - Alex. This way, Malaysia will have experience as well as fulltime on all the rounds and Fairuz will have a chance to do at least three to four complete events.

As it is, the system of having the two Malaysian drivers share free practice sessions, makes no sense, if it is the intention of the team to give both drivers a chance on the track in the A1GP car.

Another factor that has affected Malaysia's poor qualifying position according to the team's qualifying release was that Alex had only managed to do one competitive timed lap of the four runs as the other 3 runs comprised of the first run with old tyres, second run baulked by traffic and third run spoilt by the Italian driver who made an agreessive exit from the pitlane and "pushed" Alex to the grass. Alex's fastest timed lap was made in his fourth run which would was 1.5s off the fastest time set by France.

In the same release, Alex has been quoted to say that the Malaysian team is confident of running in the pace of the top 10 running teams for the races.

Malaysia is unlikely to improve or even match their opening round's 5th and whether the Malaysian team can finish in the top 10 amongst all the traffic we'll just have to wait and see by tuning into Astro's Star Sports at 7pm Malaysian time this evening or turn to 8TV which will show the races delayed at 11pm tonight.
- Max Revson

A1GP - Rd. 2, Germany - 08 Oct 05 Qualifying Results
Pos/Team/Fastest/2nd Fast/Aggregate/Gap to Fastest/Gap to Prev
1 FRANCE 1'32.661 1'32.671 3'05.332 - -
2 USA 1'32.622 1'32.766 3'05.388 +0.056 +0.056
3 BRAZIL 1'32.760 1'32.826 3'05.586 +0.254 +0.198
4 GREAT BRITAIN 1'33.061 1'33.140 3'06.201 +0.869 +0.615
5 GERMANY 1'33.004 1'33.205 3'06.209 +0.877 +0.008
6 SWITZERLAND 1'32.901 1'33.554 3'06.455 +1.123 +0.246
7 ITALY 1'33.380 1'33.629 3'07.009 +1.677 +0.554
8 IRELAND 1'33.409 1'33.626 3'07.035 +1.703 +0.026
9 PORTUGAL 1'33.659 1'33.714 3'07.373 +2.041 +0.338
10 NETHERLANDS 1'33.537 1'33.854 3'07.391 +2.059 +0.018
11 MEXICO 1'33.522 1'33.903 3'07.425 +2.093 +0.034
12 CZECH REPUBLIC 1'33.546 1'33.903 3'07.449 +2.117 +0.024
13 CANADA 1'33.657 1'33.927 3'07.584 +2.252 +0.135
14 NEW ZEALAND 1'33.781 1'33.898 3'07.679 +2.347 +0.095
15 INDONESIA 1'33.638 1'34.091 3'07.729 +2.397 +0.050
16 PAKISTAN 1'34.132 1'34.427 3'08.559 +3.227 +0.830
17 INDIA 1'34.365 1'34.890 3'09.255 +3.923 +0.696
18 MALAYSIA 1'34.165 1'35.334 3'09.499 +4.167 +0.244
19 AUSTRIA 1'34.558 1'35.162 3'09.720 +4.388 +0.221
20 CHINA 1'35.062 1'35.099 3'10.161 +4.829 +0.441
21 JAPAN 1'35.166 1'35.179 3'10.345 +5.013 +0.184
22 AUSTRALIA 1'34.929 1'35.442 3'10.371 +5.039 +0.026
23 SOUTH AFRICA 1'34.987 1'35.537 3'10.524 +5.192 +0.153
24 LEBANON 1'35.706 1'36.549 3'12.255 +6.923 +1.731