home

A1 Team India gears up for its first test at the Paul Ricard Hi Tech test track in France

23rd Aug 2005

While many have been of the opinion that A1 India have been in the pits while others have been on the track,the actual situation has been quite different.

Most countries have hired the services of current European and British Teams to run the team for their respective countries.A1 Team India have truly followed the spirit of the concept of A1 GP in setting up a team with its staff being a mix of Indians, Indian origin and British Engineers who have been closely associated with Indian drivers and Indian motorsports. Further A1 India has been sourcing its own equipment and electronics required to run such a sophisticated car and this policy shows the long term commitment of the shareholders of A1 India towards the A1 GP.

It is for the above reasons and to add to the fact that the nominated drivers and most of the mechanics and engineers had already confirmed race commitments which clashed with the first test in July,A1 India chose to skip the first test and concentrate on the Paul Ricard test so that the test is done with full staff and equipment vis a vis doing a few shake down runs with a test driver and limited staff in the first test at Silverstone, UK in July. While the team building exercise and equipment sourcing has been handled by Chief Engineer Patrick Roberts and Team Manager Akbar Ebrahim, Team India has been working on its drivers with a stringent physical fitness and nutrition programme under the watchful eye of Ramji Srinivasan from Chennai who will be the fitness coach for A1 Team India.

On the 17th and 18th of August Team India put 4 drivers thru a stringent test at the Pembry circuit in Wales,UK under the watchful eyes of the following people :

Akbar Ebrahim : Team Manager, Anthony Heatt : Chief Engineer-Raikkonen-Robertson Racing ( F3 Team owned by Kimmi Raikkonen), Andy Pardoe : Renowned Driver Coach having been associated for a long period with the famous Jim Russell racing school and Danny Watts : Top British Formula 3 driver and present driver coach.

The 4 drivers who tested 2 State of the Art Formula 3 cars were : Karun Chandhok, Armaan Ebrahim, Parthiv Sureshwaren and Imran Hussain

The 2 nominated drivers namely Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim justified their nomination in full by being emerging as the 2 quickest drivers on track over the 2 days of testing. Karun who has driven the Formula 3 car for 3 years and currently driving the 450 bhp World series championship topped the times as expected.

Armaan Ebrahim surprised one and all present with a mature and fantastic display as this was the first time the youngster was getting into a F3 car and it was the first time that he was driving a racing car in a new circuit in England. Armaan came within 3/10th of the target time set by current Formula 3 driver Danny Watts.

Parthiv who had driven the British Formula 3 championship a couple of years back and fresh from 3 tests in the World Series car in Italy and Spain was third fastest and Imran Hussain, an Indian based in the USA was slowest of the four drivers who tested.

Again, there have been many questions about why the drivers are being tested in a F3 car which is 250 bhp and not in a F 3000 car which is 450 bhp and closer to the power of the A1 car which is 520 bhp.The answer is simple, but fairly technical. A F3 car is built in such a way that the chassis, brakes and aerodynamics are far superior to the engine power and therefore allows for very high cornering speeds provided the driver is willing to push the car to its limits. In fact the harder one drives the car thru the fast corners the more the downforce generated from the aerodynamics of the car. In a F3000 car, the power output is much higher and its more of throttle balance thru high speed and medium speed corners though relatively speaking the cornering speeds are much higher because of bigger tyres and bigger wings for more downforce.

So the net result is that a driver learns a lot more by going thru the process of driving a F3 car quick and then moving onto the A1 car as he will then be more equipped to deal with the extra power, braking and aerodynamics.

To this context as explained above, the test was very productive and the drivers namely Karun and Armaan are now in a good frame of mind to approach their first test in the A1 car from the 24th to 26th August 2005. The test will be run over two and a half days with a total track time of 7 hours over the two and a half days. Each team will be given 5 sets of new tyres for the 3 days and 550 litres of fuel. The tyres, fuel and oils for the 3 days and for the whole series is supplied free of cost as part of the franchise agreement.

A1 India’s plan for the 3 day test :

Day One : Karun Chandhok, who has already driven on the Paul Ricard circuit in the World Series Renault car and knows the circuit well will start the session in the morning and do the Installation laps to ensure that all systems are functioning well and all engine parameters are performing to specifications. The installation laps will be a series of single or 2 lap runs and back into the pits for the engineers to plug in their computers into the black box of the car which stores all data of the engine parameters to check if all is ok.If all goes well, the driver will then be asked to increase the number of laps to 10 laps per session and also slowly increase the pace. For the first day,A1 India will cut the revs off the engine which in layman terms means that the power output is cut down to a small extent so as to ensure that there are no engine over revs and it also gives the driver some time to settle down with the power and ease into the 520 bhp band quite smoothly.

By mid day Karun will be asked to push harder and will then start to engage into conversations with the Chief Engineer and Data Analyzer during each pit stop to try and bring about a better balance to the handling characteristics of the car and also will get feed back from the data analyzer and the team manager on how he needs to improve on his driving techniques in order to get quicker. Karun will end his practice session at 1 pm and break for lunch.

Karun who has had a tough few races in the World Renault Series ,did very well in last years Nissan World Series and in the British Formula 3 Scholarship class and hopefully he will use this opportunity to leave behind this years gremlins and climb to the top of the racing ladder taking A1 India along with him.

Armaan will take over at 2 pm after lunch as the seat positions and the pedal positions have to be altered as both drivers have different heights, weights and leg positions.

Armaan will go thru a slightly different programme. He will be first asked to do a few installation laps to get a clear understanding of all the electronics and controls on the steering wheel that he will have to operate. This is something that he has never experienced before. The steering wheel has the following buttons the driver has to operate while driving :

Talk button :This is for the radio contact between the driver and the engineer and team manager while driving on the track.

Power Boost button : This is for an additional surge of power which can be used when overtaking another car. It steps up the bhp by another 30 bhp and gives the driver another 400 rpm.

Pit Lane Speed limiter button : This is to ensure that the car is traveling at the desired speed limit while entering and exiting the pit lane.

Dash Menu buttons : These are to change the menu on the dashboard screen to allow the driver to read different types of data such as speed ,sector times, rpm, temperatures, pressures, fuel etc.

Water button : This is for the energy fluid that is bottled in the car with a tube going thru the drivers helmet thereby permitting the driver to get fluid intake when there is any dehydration while driving.

Brake balance button : This is to adjust the brake pressure more to the front or to the rear while driving.

Emergency button : In case of a crash, this is for the marshals to engage the button to neutral the car and shut off all electrical and fuel systems.

Once thru with becoming familiar with the above mentioned parameters and also with the 6 speed electronic paddle shift gearbox, Armaan will then be asked to do a series of 5 lap runs to familiarize himself with the track as it is a new track for him and also get used to the 520 bhp which he has never tasted before. A tough job for a 16 year old, but going by his credentials one does not doubt his ability to handle the job assigned to him. He will be the youngest driver on the grid by at least 4 years.

Armaan will then be allowed to start to push the car near its limits towards the end of the day to get more comfortable with the car and the track.

Day 2 will be more realistic as the team will then increase the rpm level and the power output of the car and both drivers will then be given new sets of tyres to start setting quick lap times and also improve the balance of the car to their liking.

It is a new team and the engineers, mechanics, data analyzer and the drivers will all have to put their heads down and strive to arrive at a smooth working relationship along with their team manager to ensure maximum performance for A1 India.

Comments Team Manager, Akbar Ebrahim, Miracles are not expected from this test as we are one test behind anyway .Familiarity does breed contempt and to that extent we are one test behind and that is bound to show initially. But common sense is the mother of all virtues and together with Will Power and Passion, we should be mid field by the end of the third day. I have always held the bull by its horns and never been scared of coming off the looser. In fact when I have not won, I have never considered myself loosing. I have always taken it as another lesson to be learned for the future. In our endeavor to build a strong future, we are bound to go thru turbulent times.It is thru these times that we need the support of every Indian to help us come thru a very new and challenging phase in the World of Motorsport.A1 Team India has the best motivators and support from its magnificent shareholders Mr. Anil Kapoor and Mr. Atul Gupta and Mr. Tony Gupta as well as the entire Sahara Computers group and its extremely difficult to feel lonely with such solid and good people backing the team.

** END **