The Trial of A1 Grand Prix

A1 Grand Prix, although you have now finished your first season, you stand accused of being a worthless championship. Few people are watching you and no-one turns up at your tracks either. You do not have the racing purity of Formula One, and continue just to be the racing equivalent of being 'all mouth and no trousers.'

How do you plead?

The case for the prosecution

When A1 GP started, it appeared a radical concept. Nation versus nation motor racing. It was a nice idea, but frankly, how on earth was it supposed to work?

Series founder Sheikh Maktoum sold three-year franchises to wealthy business consortiums, giving the rights to run a racing car in a given countries' colours and earn their money back from prize money and sponsorship of their car.

But sponsorship was hard to come by. The original rule of having all the sponsorship from the franchise's nation had to be eventually relaxed to just 60 percent of the total revenue, meaning that alternative revenue sources could be sought.

Cars did pick up revenue as the season went on, but A1 GP wasn't a Field of Dreams scenario. Just because they built it didn't mean people would come. And often, they didn't.

The championship admittedly did launch brightly at Brands Hatch with nearly 70,000 spectators attending the first meeting over the course of the weekend.

But then, spectator wise, it dive-bombed. The crowd figures at the two remaining European rounds at the EuroSpeedway, Germany and Estoril, Portugal didn't even match Brands Hatch when added together.

The series picked up a bit in the next rounds in Australia and Malaysia, but there was a theme here. The rounds that had sunk without trace were the sole promotional responsibility of A1. The rounds that had been a success had someone else involved.

Series founder Sheikh Maktoum said that the reason Brands Hatch was so heavily promoted was because it was imperative that the first round was absolutely spot on, so the world could see how good his championship was going to be. He only properly turned his attention to the second round of EuroSpeedway the day after Brands Hatch.

Surely this was a mistake? The series launched 18 months previously in Dubai. The day after Brands Hatch wasn't the best time to be thinking about the next round.

There were other poorly attended races in Dubai and Laguna Seca, and that didn't look good for the television cameras.

Robbie Kerr, Team Great Britain, at Brands Hatch © LAT

On track the product was sound, but suffered from teething problems. While it didn't have anywhere near the multiple parts failures that hit GP2 early on, too many cars were left stranded on the grid at the beginning of either the formation laps or standing starts.

Batteries were a major problem too, denying Robbie Kerr a crowd-pleasing home victory at Brands Hatch. As fan attractive home performances went, that was the best it got. No country finished higher than fifth in their home race.

Pitstops were a problem throughout the season and frequently ruined previously exciting races. The design of the leading thread on the wheel meant that frequently nuts got cross-threaded. Cars were left stranded in the pits while the problems were rectified. Because of A1's pit rules, only one crew member could work on one wheel, meaning the rest of the crew just had to stand there, watch and wait for the disaster to end.

There wasn't a crew in the pitlane that didn't have problems during the crucial pitstops. Races were ruined and hopes were shattered. Chassis manufacturer Lola introduced a better design after the third round, although problems did keep occurring, which didn't do much for the sporting equity.

But thankfully not many people saw it. In Britain, a key market, the series was tucked away on satellite television channel Sky Sports, which the vast minority of the population had access too. In other countries, such as the US, it was similar. If your country had a television deal of some kind, then you were barred from watching it over the web too.

The television broadcasts were let down because of the race day format. The time allotted for the television broadcast was three and a half hours.

This equated to:

  0 -  30 minutes  Build-up
 30 -  60 minutes  Sprint Race
 60 - 120 minutes  Studio padding and interviews
120 - 180 minutes  Feature race
180 - 210 minutes  Feature race review 

The real problem here was not the build-up or the race review. Any punter could tune in late and leave early and miss this tedium. But the hour in between the races was torture. While the racing teams involved no doubt believed there should be more time after the sprint for feature race car preparation, the hour-long gap between those races was often agony.

Maktoum himself admitted that for the one race he watched from the comfort of his living room, Mexico, he couldn't believe how boring it was.

It would have been easier if there were no controversial incidents from the sprint race to review, but often there wasn't. The sprint race was pretty short and because of its length it was devoid of significant material to analyse for an hour. With the grid for the feature being determined from the finishing order of the sprint, it did appear as if drivers were a tad over cautious in that half hour at certain tracks.

The calendar was a bit of a mess too. It was late coming out, damaging credibility - creating more 'will it or won't it happen' rumours - and even during the season, races were moved around. The Indonesian round was moved by a month, and the Brazilian round was cancelled altogether (officially due to track licensing problems). Laguna Seca came within a whisker of being canned too after damage to the track after storms.

Formula One needn't worry about A1. The cars were upwards of 20 seconds per lap slower around the two tracks they shared on the calendar (Shanghai and Sepang) and nowhere near as big a spectator draw.

No, your honour, I wouldn't take A1 GP very seriously at all.

The case for the defence

Hang on a second. It wasn't perfect sure, but we are talking about a series that didn't exist two years ago.

Ralph Firman, Team Ireland, A1 Grand Prix of Nations South Africa © Reuters

The truth is that the first season of A1 Grand Prix was great, and a fantastic success story for motorsport.

Considering organisers started from scratch, what they achieved has been mind-blowing.

In terms of racing purity, it wasn't as 'true' as the majority of the other single-seater formulas. But that is missing the point entirely. It is not supposed to be about purity, but excitement and entertainment. After all, too many racing series these days lose sight of this.

What was really great about the first season of A1 GP was the on-track product. It was frankly superb. Time and time again.

The cars were equal and the racing benefited. They may not have had the outright lap speed of an F1 car but does that really matter? The hard tyres and forgiving aerodynamics made overtaking a real possibility.

If you watched A1 this season, you will have seen some stunning passing manoeuvres. To name but three:

• Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr round the outside of Australia's Will Power at Surtees bend at Brands Hatch.
• Tomas Enge passing Alex Yoong round the outside of the tricky Turn 1 complex at Shanghai, having gone down the start/finish straight wheel to wheel circa Mansell versus Senna in Barcelona 1991.
• France's Alexandre Premat running side-by-side with Switzerland's Neel Jani for several corners on the final lap of the Sepang's sprint race.

Not only were these great manoeuvres, but they provided the excitement any fan want from their racing.

While the French team certainly had the measure of the rest of the field more often than not, the depth of racing through the field made for some superb action. The push to pass button helped the show immensely and a mix of standing and rolling start for the two races also gave something extra.

Without doubt, it is the easiest form of motorsport for the casual fan to get into and get a grip of. Someone, with no interest in motorsport could have turned up at an A1 GP race and had an emotional attachment, either positive or negative, to virtually the entire grid.

It brought fans into motorsport who you would not normally seen at a race meeting. And despite the cynics, that just cannot be a bad thing.

Yes, there were events that were badly attended. But how often do you get a new series and a vast paying public to watch a race meeting as you did at Indonesia and South Africa? Just remember the crowds at those two meetings.

The hastily arranged Durban street race was a huge success. It sold out and the desire was so high that people crept in under fences to get a piece of the action.

Indeed, the British public has more than enough of a motorsport fix week in week out at the several race tracks, but there were still two-hour tailbacks getting into Brands Hatch last September. Even the Brits were enthralled.

The start of A1 Grand Prix of Nations Portugal © Reuters

Crowds at the two Grand Prix circuits, Malaysia and Shanghai, weren't too shabby either.

The category should hardly be considered worthless in a racing sense. It allowed some young drivers to shine, and help earn themselves regular drivers in the summer season and progress up the racing ladder.

Robbie Kerr, having sat on the sidelines for the three years since winning the British Formula Three title, was picked up by former Formula One World Champion John Surtees and put on a driver development programme. He now has a World Series by Renault drive. Sean McIntosh's stellar performances earned him the same reward.

Stephen Simpson was expected to play second-fiddle to former Jaguar test driver Tomas Scheckter in the South African car, but in the end drove all but two meetings and is now driving this season in Champ Car Atlantics.

Having been a nothing this time last year, Salvador Duran is now seen as having the potential to be the best driver Mexico has ever produced following some great runs in A1, including the double win at Laguna Seca.

Maybe so many people have it in for A1 because it has done too well, frankly, and made bullish statements about being a success when launched. It did set extremely high targets for a new racing series with multinational television deals and promises of attracting crowds back to the sport. But often, it was not far off from meeting its goals.

The second season of A1 Grand Prix is going to be great. Ticket sales for the first round at Zandvoort have already been incredible, and 25,000 were sold with the first five days.

There is demand for A1 GP if it is just targeted in the right place, and organisers are showing signs that they have learnt from their mistakes.

No, your honour. A1 GP isn't worthless. It is a valid addition to world motorsport.

Have you reached a verdict?

Actually, I think the jury is still out, your honour...