A10 World Series

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 28 Jan 2011, 18:00

So, as they seem to be pretty serious about this, I guess maybe there should be a thread for to discussing it?

The latest announcement is kinda useless, as all it talks about is alcohol and canapes. I'd rather have them discuss i don't know, the chassis or the calendar before announcing what they plan to have for people at the races.

Also, the fact that as soon as a new announcement comes out, the old pages are unaccessable and 404 if you try to load them anyway, is a bit irritating.

I am, though, quite looking forward to seeing if this actually happens. We might just have a new reject pool.

NB: Autosport claims they'll use the old Powered by Ferrari car, launch it all sometime in early february, and kick off racing in october. No official confirmation yet.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 28 Jan 2011, 18:44

JohnMLTX wrote:I am, though, quite looking forward to seeing if this actually happens. We might just have a new reject pool.

NB: Autosport claims they'll use the old Powered by Ferrari car, launch it all sometime in early february, and kick off racing in october. No official confirmation yet.

I'm looking forward to this too. I was present at the very first and very last rounds of A1 GP (both at Brands Hatch, as it happens... Odd that!) and thus aim to do the same with this series, at least for the first round...

And let me quote myself from the Reject Watch 2011 thread as regards your last sentence:

Came across a link to an interesting article about A10 WS: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110127/F1/110129887

The point I found most interesting was this, considering that their website is already slowly launching the series:

It wants to use a 4.0-liter Judd V10 based on the British tuner’s successful sports-car engine. These engines, sources say, would fit the fleet of British-built “Powered by Ferrari” chassis used in the final year of A1GP.

The new group, however, has yet to conclude a deal to buy the fleet of A1GP cars. The administrator for A1GP, Tim Bramston, said “quite a bit of noise and interest” remains in the assets, which include the cars and the equipment necessary to relaunch the series.

Verde · Post by **Verde** » 28 Jan 2011, 18:56

All I can say to that is bullshit...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 28 Jan 2011, 19:06

It's James Hunt posting from beyond the grave! Is Hades entering a team into A10?

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 29 Jan 2011, 00:22

dr-baker wrote:It's James Hunt posting from beyond the grave!

"MY GOODNESS! I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE!" :lol:

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 29 Jan 2011, 09:16

Verde wrote:All I can say to that is bullshit...

Fixed.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 30 Jan 2011, 21:48

Newest posting on A10WS site reveals the points structure, doing similar to NASCAR's points system for this year with some bonus points. A10 will award 15 points for a win, decreassing by one point for each position down to 1 point for 15th and 0 for 16th.

Bonus points are interesting. Not the one point for pole or the point for fastest lap, but the point for fastest pit stop. I'm assuming that this won't include drive-through penalties or any that involving speeding in the pits but purely stationary time?

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 30 Jan 2011, 21:55

thehemogoblin wrote:
Verde wrote:All I can say to that is bullshit...

Fixed.

It's funny because "Verde" means "green". :roll:

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 31 Jan 2011, 05:53

Klon wrote:
thehemogoblin wrote:
Verde wrote:All I can say to that is bullshit...

Fixed.

It's funny because "Verde" means "green".

Thank you, Kaiser Obvious

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 31 Jan 2011, 06:05

dr-baker wrote:Bonus points are interesting. Not the one point for pole or the point for fastest lap, but the point for fastest pit stop. I'm assuming that this won't include drive-through penalties or any that involving speeding in the pits but purely stationary time?

Imagine if that was in place in F1... now THAT would be fun to watch.

Verde · Post by **Verde** » 31 Jan 2011, 11:12

Klon wrote:
thehemogoblin wrote:
Verde wrote:All I can say to that is bullshit...

Fixed.

It's funny because "Verde" means "green".

Just wondered for some seconds if I got quoted green on purpose...

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 31 Jan 2011, 21:52

thehemogoblin wrote:
Klon wrote:
thehemogoblin wrote:
Fixed.

It's funny because "Verde" means "green".

Thank you, Kaiser Obvious

It's funny because he's German.

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 03 Feb 2011, 20:43

shinji wrote:
thehemogoblin wrote:
Klon wrote:
It's funny because "Verde" means "green".

Thank you, Kaiser Obvious

It's funny because he's German.

It's funny because you guys keep doing this. :lol:

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 04 Feb 2011, 11:07

A10 World Series are funny too. They'd kept updating, and now that probably only the chassis update is still missing, they stopped annoucing what and when the next update would take place. The guy who did that went on vacations...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 04 Feb 2011, 16:41

DanielPT wrote:A10 World Series are funny too. They'd kept updating, and now that probably only the chassis update is still missing, they stopped annoucing what and when the next update would take place. The guy who did that went on vacations...

Today they have repeated that there will be one pit stop in the first race and two in the second, but that there will be painted bands on them so you can see who has pitted. And they have a picture of the tyres - with no branding on! I knew they didn't look quite right when I saw them earlier...

And I think I read in Autosport a week or two ago that the proper launch of A10 would be in early February...

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 05 Feb 2011, 03:51

dr-baker wrote:
DanielPT wrote:A10 World Series are funny too. They'd kept updating, and now that probably only the chassis update is still missing, they stopped annoucing what and when the next update would take place. The guy who did that went on vacations...

Today they have repeated that there will be one pit stop in the first race and two in the second, but that there will be painted bands on them so you can see who has pitted. And they have a picture of the tyres - with no branding on! I knew they didn't look quite right when I saw them earlier...

And I think I read in Autosport a week or two ago that the proper launch of A10 would be in early February...

If you look closely, the tires are photoshopped. It's the same exact tire with the colour of stripe changed. [petty] And I already hate that first purplish color. [/petty]

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 05 Feb 2011, 15:29

JohnMLTX wrote:
dr-baker wrote:
DanielPT wrote:A10 World Series are funny too. They'd kept updating, and now that probably only the chassis update is still missing, they stopped annoucing what and when the next update would take place. The guy who did that went on vacations...

Today they have repeated that there will be one pit stop in the first race and two in the second, but that there will be painted bands on them so you can see who has pitted. And they have a picture of the tyres - with no branding on! I knew they didn't look quite right when I saw them earlier...

And I think I read in Autosport a week or two ago that the proper launch of A10 would be in early February...

If you look closely, the tires are photoshopped. It's the same exact tire with the colour of stripe changed. [petty] And I already hate that first purplish color. [/petty]

I'm looking closely...

And the stripe on the first tyre looks like a black stripe on a black tyre to me...!?!?

Just looks very amateurish to me.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 08 Feb 2011, 11:36

Well, the site just went worse even though I didn't think it was possible. Now the flag getting eaten by race related stuff (and corks) disappeared. Instead they placed a cheesy flash that while goes through different information links fast enough for you to miss the one you seek, still keeps you waiting about 10 seconds for that info link to show up again. And still no cars yet. Soapboxes I say, build'em soapboxes!

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 08 Feb 2011, 17:40

DanielPT wrote:Well, the site just went worse even though I didn't think it was possible. Now the flag getting eaten by race related stuff (and corks) disappeared. Instead they placed a cheesy flash that while goes through different information links fast enough for you to miss the one you seek, still keeps you waiting about 10 seconds for that info link to show up again. And still no cars yet. Soapboxes I say, build'em soapboxes!

Yeah. I mean, this is the pinnacle of awful web design. It's like one of those personal pages from the 90's. All it's missing is a tripod logo, some ad banners, and a horrible MIDI file.

Maybe that's gonna be part of the actual car launch page.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 15 Apr 2011, 17:06

I just decided to look up this thread as I have just revisited their website and it still hasn't changed one iota. Two and a half months? With the series due to start later this year? It isn't going to happen is it?

Having a "World Cup of Motorsport" with A1 GP having failed then A10 not taking off reminds me of football-based series - Premier 1 GP and Superleague Formula - in reverse (one never taking off and the other lasting a few seasons so far).

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 15 Apr 2011, 21:38

From what I remember, they planned to launch everything this summer, and start racing around October/November.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Jun 2011, 15:47

After this announcement, I am starting to suspect that A10 have missed the boat and that Superleague will fill the slot that A1GP used to occupy. After all, just look at the entry list:

Code: Select all

Driver             Team
Neel Jani          Belgium/Anderlecht
Yelmer Buurman     Netherlands/PSV Eindhoven
Tristan Gommendy   France/Girondins de Bordeaux
Filip Salaquarda   Czech Republic/Sparta Prague
Frederic Vervisch  Luxembourg
Earl Bamber        New Zealand
Duncan Tappy       Japan
Robert Doornbos    Netherlands
Maria de Villota   Spain/Atletico de Madrid
Andy Soucek        Turkey/Galatasaray
Ho-Pin Tung        China
Antonio Pizzonia   Brazil
John Martin        Australia
Craig Dolby        England

If that's not what A10 was trying to achieve, I don't know what is. Can the motorsport market survive two series trying the same thing? Seems like a series rivalry might take off here.

MansellsEyebrows · Post by **MansellsEyebrows** » 03 Jun 2011, 20:15

A10s website now just has a title page and nothing else for me, not sure what everyone else is getting, but if its the same I suspect A10 may well be dead. Before it was even born.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 03 Jun 2011, 22:59

MansellsEyebrows wrote:A10s website now just has a title page and nothing else for me, not sure what everyone else is getting, but if its the same I suspect A10 may well be dead. Before it was even born.

We all knew it wasn't going to make it with such malformations :cry:

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 04 Jun 2011, 11:10

Which therefore makes A10 World Series as rejectworthy as Premier Grand Prix or whatever the predecessor to Superleague that never took off.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 04 Jun 2011, 14:55

Phoenix wrote:
MansellsEyebrows wrote:A10s website now just has a title page and nothing else for me, not sure what everyone else is getting, but if its the same I suspect A10 may well be dead. Before it was even born.

We all knew it wasn't going to make it with such malformations

It might have been a long term joke though... Just to mess with our (motorsport enthusiasts) heads.

MansellsEyebrows · Post by **MansellsEyebrows** » 05 Jun 2011, 20:53

Phoenix wrote:
MansellsEyebrows wrote:A10s website now just has a title page and nothing else for me, not sure what everyone else is getting, but if its the same I suspect A10 may well be dead. Before it was even born.

We all knew it wasn't going to make it with such malformations

you're correct, but perhaps that's a good thing since superleague formula has turned away from football and is now focusing on the nations concept...the best way to go even if we get this wierd transition year of the clubs/nations thing in 2011. (Here's hoping for a solely Nation vs Nation format in 2012 and beyond, I can't decide which I prefer: Netherlands or Netherlands-PSV). I didn't know Duncan Tappy had suddenly become Japanese though...

f1-gast · Post by **f1-gast** » 06 Jun 2011, 09:08

Well Superleague formula is still a Football thing.
But more and more teams are called Team Netherlands, England, Germany etc.
maybe the reborn of the A1 !!!! (let's hope so !)

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 06 Jun 2011, 14:51

Guys the only reason Superleague has gone to a half football club/half nations format is because there are no football clubs willing to step up and invest in what is an obscure, poorly broadcast and poorly covered series. There's just no money in it and I'd be surprised if it manages to last to even have a 2012 season.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 06 Jun 2011, 15:00

AndreaModa wrote:Guys the only reason Superleague has gone to a half football club/half nations format is because there are no football clubs willing to step up and invest in what is an obscure, poorly broadcast and poorly covered series. There's just no money in it and I'd be surprised if it manages to last to even have a 2012 season.

To be honest, they are surely used to it since there isn't money to be made from football either. There is only sponsorship, prize, oil and fans money to be spent. Every single dime and in some cases more than that. But I agree that since no one cares about the series there is actually nothing to be gained and so teams back out from it.

P_Friesacher · Post by **P_Friesacher** » 06 Jun 2011, 16:47

AndreaModa wrote:Guys the only reason Superleague has gone to a half football club/half nations format is because there are no football clubs willing to step up and invest in what is an obscure, poorly broadcast and poorly covered series. There's just no money in it and I'd be surprised if it manages to last to even have a 2012 season.

I have to, sadly, agree with almost everything you have said. Except for the "poorly braodcast" part - I have always thought the broadacst was exceptionally well made for a series clearly lacking money. And the races are great, too. Still, I don't see a bright future for them, either.

MansellsEyebrows · Post by **MansellsEyebrows** » 06 Jun 2011, 18:06

P_Friesacher wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:Guys the only reason Superleague has gone to a half football club/half nations format is because there are no football clubs willing to step up and invest in what is an obscure, poorly broadcast and poorly covered series. There's just no money in it and I'd be surprised if it manages to last to even have a 2012 season.

I have to, sadly, agree with almost everything you have said. Except for the "poorly braodcast" part - I have always thought the broadacst was exceptionally well made for a series clearly lacking money. And the races are great, too. Still, I don't see a bright future for them, either.

Agreed unfortunatly, but the racing is too brilliant to ignore whilst it's still with us. And the broadcasting is exceptional considering the total lack of people actually watching, especially when Ben Edwards is in the booth.

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 06 Jun 2011, 19:42

The only coverage I get in Germany, are some weird recuts of Superleague races on Bloomberg every now and then. Although I have to admit that they have superb web coverage. But unfortunately the series is racing in front of literally nobody. And that's sad, because it would be good to have a open-wheel series under Formula One that isn't one of the 3000 junior single-seater series. Kinda like IndyCar in the 90's, where F1 rejects and never have beens shine.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 02 Aug 2011, 11:14

Any update on this?

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 02 Aug 2011, 22:52

FMecha wrote:Any update on this?

The website has no changes. Only a title page. And everything else seems to date back from January. They have a page in Facebook with the last entry being made June, 27th and a massive grand total of 38 lies/followers... A damn shame...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Aug 2011, 11:15

There is an A10 fan website who have only this week starting to lose faith...

Waris · Post by **Waris** » 03 Aug 2011, 14:08

That would be too bad if it folds before it starts, because Ferrari-Judd sounds hilarious.

EDIT: What's this then? Are they going to take IRL and make it stand for something else? http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-02/india-business/29842095_1_formula-one-fia-indian-names

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 13 Oct 2011, 20:00

A1 GP dies after four seasons, Premier 1 GP was stillborn, it looks like this A10 World Series will not take off as it was due to have started this month, and now it looks like Superleague Formula is dying a death too. At least IndyCar can be thankful it did not go the same way... The list of reject championships is growing!

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 14 Oct 2011, 11:35

dr-baker wrote:A1 GP dies after four seasons, Premier 1 GP was stillborn, it looks like this A10 World Series will not take off as it was due to have started this month, and now it looks like Superleague Formula is dying a death too. At least IndyCar can be thankful it did not go the same way... The list of reject championships is growing!

It seems to me that A10 World Series was some sort of dream, an idea from a still unknown party whom possibly had an engine too. But they lacked everything else.

I am beginning to wonder, though, is if these type of racing series may survive to their first years. F1 dominates motosport scene in Europe and in part of the world and is supported by countless feeder series which are run by either FIA, FOM or a car manufacturer. Obviously for the first two running something that may harm their goose of the golden eggs is counter productive at least if not completely daft and for the latter they would need an humongous pile of cash and still fight F1 history, glamour and established brand. The only way would be basing the series in another country. North America has Indycar, which is already struggling a bit despite its history, and the ever more popular (in North America, of course) NASCAR. South America has stock cars with which people can identify with and, except Brazil, isn't worth much in terms of market value. Besides they are very much football fans (Brazil and Argentina aside, but then basing it in only two countries might be hard). In Africa they are still a long way from caring about motorsport having much more pressing issues to resolve, like economic development. In Australia they have V8's, so no need for more. The only one left available is Asia where there is enough market value. Thing is, if it is hard enough for China to fill the stands in their F1 GP how much harder would it be to fill the stands and make people interested in it if it is a brand new series?
The idea of running it in the F1 off season is good because clashing with it would only make life harder. Superleague formula is suffering enough, it seems. So, taking Asia as a base, mix it a bit with other places in the world, find a few enterprises renown for their cars, give them a well made technical regulations book which is open to innovation and convince each one of them to make their tight budget state of the art model and in the end allocate three or four teams as a costumer to each manufacturer making all the effort financially worthwhile, then help these teams with a pool of sponsors with low initial investment from their part and finally find partners in the media world who transmit the races in open signal. Ah, don't forget to come up with an exciting championship format, wrapping everything in a desirable product overall, which is capable of providing variety and a degree of uncertainty together with entertaining racing. How hard can it be? :ugeek:

Post by **mario** » 14 Oct 2011, 12:58

DanielPT wrote:
dr-baker wrote:A1 GP dies after four seasons, Premier 1 GP was stillborn, it looks like this A10 World Series will not take off as it was due to have started this month, and now it looks like Superleague Formula is dying a death too. At least IndyCar can be thankful it did not go the same way... The list of reject championships is growing!

It seems to me that A10 World Series was some sort of dream, an idea from a still unknown party whom possibly had an engine too. But they lacked everything else.

I am beginning to wonder, though, is if these type of racing series may survive to their first years. F1 dominates motosport scene in Europe and in part of the world and is supported by countless feeder series which are run by either FIA, FOM or a car manufacturer. Obviously for the first two running something that may harm their goose of the golden eggs is counter productive at least if not completely daft and for the latter they would need an humongous pile of cash and still fight F1 history, glamour and established brand. The only way would be basing the series in another country. North America has Indycar, which is already struggling a bit despite its history, and the ever more popular (in North America, of course) NASCAR. South America has stock cars with which people can identify with and, except Brazil, isn't worth much in terms of market value. Besides they are very much football fans (Brazil and Argentina aside, but then basing it in only two countries might be hard). In Africa they are still a long way from caring about motorsport having much more pressing issues to resolve, like economic development. In Australia they have V8's, so no need for more. The only one left available is Asia where there is enough market value. Thing is, if it is hard enough for China to fill the stands in their F1 GP how much harder would it be to fill the stands and make people interested in it if it is a brand new series?
The idea of running it in the F1 off season is good because clashing with it would only make life harder. Superleague formula is suffering enough, it seems. So, taking Asia as a base, mix it a bit with other places in the world, find a few enterprises renown for their cars, give them a well made technical regulations book which is open to innovation and convince each one of them to make their tight budget state of the art model and in the end allocate three or four teams as a costumer to each manufacturer making all the effort financially worthwhile, then help these teams with a pool of sponsors with low initial investment from their part and finally find partners in the media world who transmit the races in open signal. Ah, don't forget to come up with an exciting championship format, wrapping everything in a desirable product overall, which is capable of providing variety and a degree of uncertainty together with entertaining racing. How hard can it be?

The attendance figures for this years Chinese GP were actually extremely good - they reckon that there were 90,000 at the track on Sunday this year (which is considerably more than, for example, Spa Francorchamps) now that the track owners have seen sense and the tickets are much more affordable now.

Overall you'd have to say that there is potential in the Asian market for a rival open wheel series, especially given that the region has a number of potential manufacturers and locations it could exploit. Then again, there is a possibl estumbling block in Japan, which would probably be one of the major venues, given that the GT500 series is quite popular in its own right and might well compete with an Asian OWC for viewers.