Durban Preview
For the third consecutive year the A1 GP circus comes to race in the pressure cooker conditions of summer in Durban. Not only is February hot and extremely humid, the circuit lined by concrete walls for it’s entire length offers very little margin for error.
Though the forecast temperatures (high 20′s low 30′s) for the weekend may not seem abnormally high to a visitor, any local will tell you that the high humidity at this time of year can make conditions very uncomfortable.
A driver that does well on Sunday will not only have to deal from pressure from his competitors but he will also have to keep his concentration threading his way between concrete blocks while his head boils inside his helmet.
As everyone who follows A1 GP knows, this third season has been the most open yet, the championship is still wide open with four rounds to go. South Africa are having their best season so far with two wins and fourth place in the championship so far. The last race win in Australia for Adrian Zaugg will hopefully help fill up the grandstands with local supporters expecting a repeat performance at home. With Durban having a large Indian community it is also likely that there will be strong support for Narain Karthikeyan especially after his success in China earlier in the season. Probably almost half the field have the ability to turn out winners on Sunday.
A good turnout at the weekend could prove critical for the survival of the Durban race. At the end of a three year contract, there is much speculation that the South African leg of the series might be moved to Kyalami or Cape Town or got rid of completely. Season one was a success for Durban with full grandstands mainly thanks to affordable ticket prices. Last year the organisers seemingly got overwhelmed with greed and hiked the grandstand prices out of the reach of most Durbanites. Fortunately though, they seem to have seen the error of their ways and this year the prices are once again far more attractive to the casual race fan. Personally I don’t believe three years is long enough to determine whether the event will continue to be a success or not. I think a five or six year trial period would give a far better indication. I’m sure a lot of events that are now part of the global sporting calender didn’t maybe have the full house support that they now enjoy. It’s takes time for an event to become known and I’ve noticed that this year in Durban more people are talking about the A1 GP, whether it’s good or bad things, they are now getting used to it coming around every year and the disruptions are becoming part of life. I’d think that it will take a few more years for the race to start consistantly attracting sold out gates. If the show put on is good then those who attend this year will rave to their friends who might well then attend next year and so on. Advertising isn’t everything and in a City like Durban where disposable income is probably not as high as other places many people are not going to fork out on something like the A1 GP unless they are convinced they are going to have a good time.
Anyway tomorrow the action begins. It’s a weekend filled with much uncertainty about the race and the races future. Lets hope that by Sunday evening we are more certain of both.
Friday Practice
The day started with slightly overcast and breezy conditions. After John Watson drove his traditional handful of laps the drivers and photographers went down to the beach (just the other side of the pit buildings in fact) for a group photo shoot of the drivers.
With 45 minutes before the first rookie session I headed for the media centre in the Casino where the hospitality this year has been upgraded. Last year we had complimentary bottled water, tea, coffee and sandwiches for lunch. This year we had coke and other cold drinks to refresh ourselves as well as a selection of hot snacks at lunch time.
Unfortuantely for the photographers things were not all good. Once again there were very few (none at most corners) holes cut in the fence to stick your lens through. This meant that one had to squeeze their lens (if it was small enough) through one of the ordinary holes in the fencing. Luckily my widest two lenses are both 77mm diameter which just fits through the holes. It’s not satisfactory though as it is impossible to move the camera and lens enough to pan. Hopefully some holes will be cut in the fencing before events proceed tomorrow morning. I wasn’t really following the times drivers were setting (actually I still don’t know who came where) as I was really more interested in trying to get some half decent shots.
Most of the rookie drivers were noticably slow, there was a couple of red flags during their sessions so it was difficult at times to know if they were warming up after coming out of the pits or slowing down to go back in or actually on a flying lap! In the main practice session the drivers were more on it with many locking up tyres especially coming into the first chicane. I stood for a while on the exit of that chicane where the drivers were coming very close to the inside wall. I was actually quite surprised that some drivers gave the wall quite a wide berth while others (New Zealand, Canada and Netherlands inparticular) came right up close to the wall every time they went past.
What really struck me today was that everyone seemed to be so happy to be having this race in Durban, the organisation is superb once again and even former cynics (one journalist who has been very vocal in the past of his dislike for A1) seem to be taking an interest.
It really doesn’t seem possible or fair, that this could be the last Durban event.
Qualifying
Probably the big news story from todays qualifying session is not Robert Wickens and Neel Jani’s pole positions. It’s Adrian Zaugg and Team South Africas inability to perform at home once again. Zaugg spun during qualifying for the sprint race right in front of where I was standing, luckily for me, I got a shot of him spinning. It was a silly mistake as his first session lap had been ruined by Johnny Reid making a similar mistake in the same place. Knowing that his sprint race grid position depended on this lap he maybe could have taken it a bit easier, saying that though don’t we all love to see a driver giving it 11/10ths even if he might end up throwing his car at the scenery once in a while? I’m sure if he had taken it easy and ended up midfield we would all be moaning because he didn’t push hard enough, just like he did in the feature race qualifying. Oh sorry it was an electrical glitch.
I mentioned yesterday that Robert Wickens was using all the circuit and was looking pretty quick. He confirmed that today with pole for the sprint race and just to reassure anyone who might have thought that the sprint race grid was a bit of a lottery due to the disruptions, he backed it up with a second on the feature race grid. His driving style reminds me somewhat of Nico Hulkenburg last year, very smooth, keeping everything tidy and using as much of the track as permitted.
Neel Jani was his typical efficient self. He looked a bit more ragged then Wickens but ended up on pole for the feature race at the end of the day. It’s a circuit Jani knows and having raced here before will know (due to unfortunate personal experiances) the effects of a one hour plus race on himself and his tyres. As we’ve seem before in Durban, a low grid position in a feature race does not rule out victory. Adrian Zaugg still has chance to return from Zero to Hero.
The Races
By the time I reached the circuit this morning at half past seven the sun was already blazing down on the track. I don’t know if I would have been able to last the whole day without the periodic breaks in the cool air-conditioned media centre. Maybe one of the reasons the crowds at the Durban races (apart from the first year) are not great is because few people feel they want to spend a day under the February sun, traditionally the hottest, muggiest, stickiest and uncomfortable month in Durban. Possibly October would be better, it’s still warm but not unbearable, it is a rainy time of year though. A rainy Durban race would no doubt end in unimaginable carnage, we’d be lucky to have any finishers!
Anyway back to todays proceedings. The sprint race seemed to be over very quickly and from where I was standing (turn two) it was largely uneventful. It was good to see Robert Wickens get the win though.
The build up to the feature race was very low key compared to previous years. In the first two seasons we had a parade of floats go around the track as well as traditional dancers. This year there was just a few dancers in front of the main stands and a drive by of Harley Davidsons and Go-karts. It was a bit strange as there seems to have been money spent in other areas of the event so I don’t know why they cut back on the entertainment to the paying public.
Talking of the paying public, the crowds did seem a bit better then last year but nowhere the masses that attended in 2006. That first year there was a queue outside the gates from early in the morning and wherever you went there was a crowd to fight through. This year there were no queues to get in and it was possible to walk anywhere without getting stuck in a crowd. This is something that will not help Durbans cause if they want to keep the race for the next three years.
As far as the feature race went, I had very little clue what was going on. After the numerous crashes (Adrian Zaugg managed to be involved in most of them), safety cars and pitstops, I completely lost track of who was where. Occasionally I would catch snippets of the commentary and discover that Adrian Zaugg had moved up to twelth or crashed again or that India was leading the race (that did surprise me). Not being able to see a screen from where I was, I didn’t know what was going on. I find the pitstops just confuse things when you are watching a race live. Another good reason to get rid of them. Adrian Zaugg managed to end the race by taking out half the field in one fell swoop at the hairpin. For his sins he was hauled infront of us once again at the winners press conference.
Filipe Albuquerque looked overjoyed on the podium with his third place as did the entire portuguese team who were quite justifiably jubilant. Neel Jani and Loic Duval also seemed well pleased with their results.
It was a happy end to another memorable weekend. As I walked away from the pits for the last time I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad that this may be the last time we see this event in Durban. It’s been such a well organised and efficiently run event the past three years. The circuit has always been superbly prepared, the spectator facilities are also very good with plenty of toilets and refreshment vendors etc. The location is right up there with the classic street circuits, right by the indian ocean, you can step out of the paddock on to the beach. Also the parking has been organised so spectators can easily access their particular grandstand from a designated car parking area. Most importantly everyone involved from the drivers, teams, media and of course spectators seem to enjoy the event. Over the past three days I have just seen people enjoying themselves in the sunshine. I didn’t hear anyone swear or get angry with one another, everyone just making the most of it and enjoying themselves.
To sum it up, the events have probably been as close to perfect as possible, this I think is more than reason enough to continue the event for at least another three years. A tradition and history need to be created for an event like this, already I can see this starting to take shape with certain things. I’m sure Monaco didn’t have all the glitz and glamour associated with it’s Grand Prix after only the third event. Given time I’m sure Durban will become a truely important race on the calender and as A1 GP grows and it becomes more well known, more and more fans will probably escape the northern hemisphere chill to come and see some racing in Durban.
Lets hope this isn’t my last race report!