United nations

Here's what you need to know about the A1GP before you turn on the telly next weekend.

Imagine sitting behind the quaking wire fence as a 550 bhp howl tears through it and surrounds you. The sign you're holding up says 'Go India!', you have the tricolour painted across your laughing face, you don't for that minute care who is in the orange-and-green car you are cheering... and you're just enjoying that car's awesome performance.

And in the back of your head, there is no confusion. No ifs and buts like in F1, 'oh, he'd be just as fast if he had the McLaren Mercedes.'

As the A1GP introduction video says emphatically, 'there is no place to hide.'

Dubai's Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum's brainchild, the A1GP is an enthralling concept. His idea is simple. Take the race car as a given, and let the equation be decided purely on driver skill.

Paint the car in national colours to get it fervent, raging support from the fans. In effect, create the still-missing motorsport equivalent of the FIFA World Cup.

And as it turns out, that is exactly what it is turning out to be. Racing car legends, Lola, have created a striking looking race car for the series and it's a smartly executed car. It relies more on mechanical grip, so overtaking isn't restricted by aerodynamics like in F1.

The 520 bhp car also has a boost system, that allows the engine to boost peak power to 550 bhp for a limited period in each race. Should come in handy, that. Most importantly, the car was designed to be reliable, so that teams could focus on race strategy and winning, not on fixing broken stuff.

Twenty-six nations will participate, of which only three places remain vacant. The format is simple. Each nation has a privately owned team, with up to three nominated drivers. Each team gets two cars for the weekend and five sets of Cooper control tyres. From then on, the team manages its resources. When to use new tyres, which drivers to put on track are all strategy. Better still, there are two races, the first is a short sprint (up to twenty-five minutes) and the second one is a proper long one (up to an hour).
 

A1GP Race Days
Brands Hatch, UK	25-Sep
Eurospeedway, Germany	9-Oct
Estoril, Portugal	23-Oct
Eastern Creek, Australia	6-Nov
Sepang, Malaysia	20-Nov
Dubai Autodrome, Dubai	11-Dec
Sentul, Indonesia	15-Jan
Cape Town, S Africa	29-Jan
Curitiba, Brazil	12-Feb
Monterrey, Mexico	26-Feb
Laguna Seca, USA	12-Mar
Shanghai, China	2-Apr

Again, the team chooses which of the drivers races the sole national car. The second race will include a mandatory pitstop, including a full tyre set swap.

And winning has glittering rewards with one million dollars in prize booty up for grabs per weekend. The teams are expected to manage their own sponsors, and will get the prize money as a bonus.

The other masterstroke in Sheikh Maktoum's part is the timing. The A1GP series kicks off when all the others are winding down. And ends just before they begin. This ensures that coverage starved motorsport enthusiasts will have a single point of focus in the off-season, A1GP.

Team India is backed by South African businessman Atul Gupta, and Anil Kapoor, our own Bollywood hero. Together, they approached Akbar Ebrahim to run the 14-man outfit. Akbar, who's India's first international racer and currently India's leading motorsport trainer, nominated two of only three Indians who can race in the series which needs an FIA 'B' license.

Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim will be Team India's pride and they form an interesting mix of experience and talent. Akbar Ebrahim said, 'The FIA B license requires international competitive experience in C-class series, like the World Series. And Indian drivers would have to excel in India, and then race abroad to qualify for one.' The Team intends to set up training camps to identify and nurture talent who can be groomed to fly the tricolour in future A1GP races.

Armaan and Karun both were at the second test in Paul Ricard (having skipped the first test at Silverstone). Armaan drove only a couple of laps and said, 'I went back to my Formula BMW race car, and suddenly, it felt so slow!' Chandhok, the more experienced racer, took the car through reliability and installation testing.

Team India was ranked 19th in the test, but as Ebrahim clarified, 'we were not posting fast times that day. We want the car to be reliable first, then we'll see how to squeeze the maximum juice from it.'

Flying off to the final test day at Silverstone on 19 September 2005, the team is obviously excited. Karun said, 'The first race at Brands Hatch is going to be daunting. It's an easy circuit to get the hang of, but going fast at Brands is another thing altogether.

And it is going to be our first race weekend. And the pitlane isn't the best either. The circuit I am looking forward to most is the legendary Laguna Seca'

Armaan said, 'I know Sepang well, so I'm probably going to be most comfortable there. I have not driven at any of the other circuits.' The young racer has done well abroad in the Formula BMW Asia series and will now take up the second slot in Team India.

Akbar Ebrahim remained cautiously optimistic about our chances, 'Lots of the nations have hired professional racing teams, something we wanted to avoid doing. Also, there's a whole bunch of ex-F1 drivers in the fray "� Jos Verstappen, Pedro Lami, Ralph Firman... We're looking at a middle of the order position. However, while initially the gaps between the fastest, middle order and back-end drivers will be large, expect the competition to get closer by the end of the year, by which time, everybody will have the hang of it.'

And guess who else is in the entry list. There's a green car with PIA sponsorship... this is going to be fun.

Watch the A1GP preview on Star Sports on 22 September 2005 at 10 pm. First race is at Brands Hatch, UK, on 25 September 2005 at 6 pm. Qualifying is on 24 September 2005, check your newspaper for timings.