AGR to A1GP?

[Civic]

Is AGR in ALMS next year? They weren't mentioned in the Acura LMP1 press release.

[NickFalzone]

yes we do know. Rice took part in both two day pre-season tests at Silverstone before running the first two rounds of the season so he had plenty of seat time.




A1GP have identicle cars. There is no aero development or any mechanical development allowed on the cars, there are truely identicle and spec. Infact the teams do not own the cars, and don't even keep them. The series themselves own and store all cars at their facility in Silverstone. It is the series that ships the cars from Silverstone to the various race tracks around the world. The teams themselves only get their hands on the cars on race weekends and at test sessions. The only differences each team can make to the cars are on basic set-ups.

Michael will not be able to get the team "top notch cars" for the reasons stated above. It is not the same as IndyCar where they can buy cars direct from Dallara and make their aero/mechanical developments. AGR will never see this car in their own shop just on race weekends and will get what they are given by the series which will be the same car as every other team each race weekend.

And testing is restricted/impossible as the teams do not own/keep their carts so AGR's drivers would get no extra seat time over and above what anyone else gets.

Buddy Rice ran last year at the back of the field in 4 races. Jonathon Summerton took over from him and in the exact same car with the same team he ran up front and won races.

So long story short, Buddy Rice is not as good in A1GP cars as Jon Summerton. Your point? I doubt if you put Summerton in an IndyCar he'd be running top 10 at Indy. I don't know enough about the cars or the drivers to comment on their skill level. But to say Rice is representative of a terrible American road racing contingent, or that A1GP drivers are clearly more talented than IndyCar drivers is a ridiculous argument. I'm not going to disagree that Danica and Marco will be in way over their heads in the series, but I do not see that as a bad thing in any way. The last thing those 2 need is fast rides that make them think they're better drivers than they are.

[BobGarage]

So long story short, Buddy Rice is not as good in A1GP cars as Jon Summerton. Your point? I doubt if you put Summerton in an IndyCar he'd be running top 10 at Indy. I don't know enough about the cars or the drivers to comment on their skill level. But to say Rice is representative of a terrible American road racing contingent, or that A1GP drivers are clearly more talented than IndyCar drivers is a ridiculous argument. I'm not going to disagree that Danica and Marco will be in way over their heads in the series, but I do not see that as a bad thing in any way. The last thing those 2 need is fast rides that make them think they're better drivers than they are.

i wasn't trying to say Buddy is a bad driver. My point was that the factors in A1GP can lead to top level drivers being shown up by the youngsters. As per the Rice/Summerton showing of last year and poor showings of other "top level" drivers in recent years against the young upstarts from F3 and GP2.

The fact that AGR won't be able to buy a "top notch car", won't get enough time to get up to speed with set-ups etc and with no extra testing time available the drivers won't get any more seat time before a race weekend. With all that the likely hood is that Danica and Marco could end up as just more names on the top level drivers list that have been overshadowed by the young upstarts in this series.

[JSH]

Unlike the Peter Principle?

Well, we could just sack them both then.....

[call_me_andrew]

Is AGR in ALMS next year? They weren't mentioned in the Acura LMP1 press release.

1. I think you mean LMP2.
2. Acura wants Fernandez to take over the whole program. So AGR is out of ALMS.

[anthonyvop]

It's possible, I know Buddy Rice runs a couple A1GP races as well. The A1 calendar is only 9 confirmed races and only 1 or 2 that run into the IndyCar season. Based on 08, Danica and Marco could certainly use more track time.

You realize this will mean the AGR is moving UP to A1GP!

The new A1GP cars are significantly quicker than an ICS Dallara.

[Civic]

I meant LMP1...there was a press release that was primarily about Acura's LMP1 program, but at the end they mentioned LMP2 but nothing about AGR. I figured with the driver swaps and lack or results Acura wasn't happy with AGR's ALMS program.