Track Experience Counts A Great Deal In Mexico

With So Little Testing For The A1GP Drivers

With so little testing opportunities before the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season started in Britain in September last year and with zero testing once after the season has started, driver experience for the Fundidora Park circuit in Monterrey, Mexico where this weekend's races are run is a paramount jigsaw piece to a possible good result.

Especially so when this circuit has been described as "A tight and twisty circuit almost like a street course." and "Interesting circuit with very little grip and slow corners." by Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Ireland's Ralph Firman respectively.

So, who are those with experience on the Monterrey circuit?

Before this weekend, there were only three A1 team drivers with experience are A1 Team Malaysia's Yoong who finished 9th in the points in his first ChampCar race there in 2003, Christian Fittipaldi, who joined A1 Team Brazil in place of Nelson Piquet Jr last time out at Sentul, who finished third there in the 2002 ChampCar season and Marcus Marshall of A1 Team Australia, who had his first taste of Fundidora Park last year.

The ranks of drivers with experience on the Fundidora circuit swelled to five with new team driver appointees announced for Canada and home team Mexico.

Patrick Carpentier, who is taking over the A1 Team Canada seat from Sean McIntosh - winner last time out in Indonesia - has raced on this northern Mexican circuit three times in ChampCars. And David Martinez, who has raced in Fundidora twice in junior formula races before, was picked ahead of Salvador Duran to represent A1 Team Mexico in this weekend's A1 Grand Prix of Nations in his home city, Monterrey.

But the advantage of track experience that these two new appointees have must surely be wiped out by the fact that they are stepping into these A1 cars for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, France's pair of Alex Premat and Nicolas Lapierre must be the last of the drivers to arrive in Monterrey as they just wrapped up their GP2 tests at Paul Ricard yesterday (Thursday) to travel transatlantic with little hope of getting over their jetlag before practices start today.
How will this weekend go?

My money is as usual placed with consideration for the championship leaders, France and Switzerland, but with the French drivers having to contend with jetlag, Swiss Neel Jani having a purple patch and all three of them without the benfit of track experience, I would also cast an eye on Brazil, Australia and of course Malaysia.

With Mexico being 14 hours behind Malaysia, I've changed my sleep pattern since 2 nights ago to stay up from 3am on Monday morning Malaysian time to catch the live actions of this Sunday's races on Star Sports and 8TV.

Roll on Mexico!

Max Revson