is the
British team of
A1 Grand Prix , an international racing series.
A1 Team Great Britain was one of the first six seat holders in the series announced, with chairman
John Surtees hosting the event. The car was unveiled to the public in September
2005 , displaying a distinctive blue, red and white livery to reflect the colours of the
Flag Of The United Kingdom .
British financier
Tony Clements is the national seat holder, and will run the corporate arm of the team. Former
Formula One and
500cc Motorcycle World Champion
John Surtees has been appointed as the team principal, working with the organisational structure, technical development, recruitment and race operations for the team. The
Arden Motorsport racing organisation is responsible for race operations of the A1 Team Great Britain car.
On
May 23 and
24 ,
2005 , A1 Team Great Britain held a "shoot-out" evaluation test to select their driver(s) for the
2005-06 Season . The drivers used an Arden Motorsport
Formula 3000 car for the test, which was held at the
Brands Hatch circuit in
England .
Ralph Firman and
Robbie Kerr drove the car on the first day, both completing over 60 laps each in dry conditions. The following day,
Alex Lloyd and
James Rossiter were faced with wet conditions, and both drove 20 laps before Kerr was put back in the car for a further 20 laps so that the team could have a useful comparison between the two days. On
July 4 2005 , Surtees announced that A1 Team Great Britain had selected Kerr and Lloyd as their drivers for the series' first season. At the first full official A1 Grand Prix test session, at a shortened
Silverstone Circuit , Kerr set the fastest time of the day ahead of 14 other countries.
A1 Team Great Britain are the first team in the series to offer a testing role to a woman driver.
Katherine Legge (who recently tested a
Formula 1 car for
Minardi ), will take advantage of the extra two test sessions, by taking the wheel at
Dubai on December 9-11.
Despite Lloyd being selected as the team's second driver, when Kerr was unavailable for the series finale at China, former
BAR F1 test driver and
IndyCar racer
Darren Manning was drafted in to replace him.
- . This being the first race in the series, and held on Team Great Britain's home track, it was thought the red, white and blue machine would perform extremely well, especially as Robbie Kerr's test times had been so fast. However, Kerr qualified the car only fifth on the Brands grid, although less than a second behind pole winner Nelson Piquet Jr of Team Brazil . Kerr looked promising when taking fifth spot in the sprint race, and was looking even more competitive in the main race. He took the lead when some of the other competitors made their compulsory pit stops, but on lap 18 he coasted to the side of the track and out of contention due to battery failure. Nonetheless, due to the high attrition rate among other competitors, Team Great Britain ended the day sixth overall in the championship, with six points, to create a solid platform for future races. For a full report/results of the event, see Here .
