A1GP S Africa preview

A1GP World Cup of Motorsport makes its first ever visit to Kyalami this weekend in round five of the series.

The South Africa leg will take place on 20th to 22nd February 2009.

Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa is being supported by a number of commercial partners, including Go-GP.Org, the Gauteng government, SAB Miller, ABI and Neo Africa.

Neo Africa will be hosting the exclusive Ignition and Podium parties on the A1GP race weekend, as well as hosting a Charity Supercar Parade on race day for A1GP fans. Neo Africa will also be providing the facilities and communications infrastructure for the media centre at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit.

Kyalami is South Africa’s most famous motor racing circuit, and is located in Gauteng, just north of Johannesburg. The balanced blend of slow, medium and fast corners and the fact that Kyalami is nearly 2,000 metres above sea level will present a challenge to both the race drivers and engineers at this weekend’s event.

The six former races in Durban have resulted in lively events, including the maiden win for A1 Team Netherlands in 2006. Germany won twice there in 2007 on the way to championship glory, and Switzerland and Canada shared the honours in 2008.

Some teams loved it and some teams hated it but the PowerBoost ‘joker’ has been reinstated to Saturday qualifying. The functionality of the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car allows for the PowerBoost button to be available for an entire lap of Qualifying, and teams will be allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps.

The PowerBoost button gives an extra 60bhp on application, so the ability to use it throughout a lap is likely to make a significant difference to the car’s capability.

As in Taupo, the Sprint race in South Africa will have a standing and not a rolling start after a great deal of consideration was given to the change implemented in New Zealand.

Both these changes will remain a feature for the remainder of Season Four.