MOTORSPORT: A1 our open-wheeler future?

Thursday motorsport reportJanuary 31, 2008

At any mention of A1 there is talk, or at least thought, of the persistent doom about the series, now in its third season.

While A1 has proven quite popular in some countries, in particular we note places like Holland and New Zealand, it can hardly be said that the series -- for identical 3.4-litre V8 open-wheelers representing 22 countries -- has gained great traction yet.

And, of course, there are many who question how long it will last -- despite having initially been bankrolled by an Arab sheik and more recently by a South African diamond tycoon, Tony Teixeira.

However, as the A1 circus prepares for its third outing at Eastern Creek we just wonder whether, provided of course that it survives, this form of racing may have more of a future in Australia than Formula 1 and Champ Car.

The reason we wonder that is not any particularly healthy signs in the A1 series, although there may be bright spots on the horizon via the $170 million deal for Ferrari engines in new cars next season, but because of the problems ahead for F1 and Champ Car in this country.

F1 has come to Australia for almost a quarter of a century -- firstly to Adelaide, from 1985 until 1995, and since then to Melbourne.

It has never had the impact in Melbourne that it did in Adelaide, but more importantly the financials on the event are now becoming potentially unacceptable for the Victorian government and taxpayer.

Last year's loss on the race at Melbourne's Albert Park was close to $35 million. In the past three years the losses have totalled almost $70 million. Cynics claim the numbers are even worse than stated.

Melbourne's contract with Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management to host a grand prix each year expires in 2010.

The official line is that negotiations on an extension of that contract will start after this year's GP in mid-March.

Preliminary talks would already have been held and one party, if not both, has probably already made up its mind whether it wants an extension.

Ecclestone has made it known he wants the race to be run at night, when it would draw a bigger audience in F1's European heartland.

In a partial concession to Ecclestone's wishes, this year's race will start at 3.30pm, rather than the traditional 2pm. To start any later in future years, with the circuit fully lit, is likely to add -- judging by what it is costing Singapore for its new night GP at the end of September this year, and the figures Malaysia is mulling over to light up next year -- another $15 million to the cost.

Even with the return of the V8 Supercars to Albert Park, the Melbourne organisers will do well to contain their loss this year to $35 million.

Add another $15 million to that next year if the event is lit for a night race (presuming approvals can be obtained to do it, and that is not a very safe presumption) and all of a sudden the event is costing Victorian taxpayers $50 million a year.

There are some signs that, since the handover of leadership from Steve Bracks to John Brumby, the Victorian government is sniffing in the breeze that losses of that magnitude are not going to be political acceptable.

Especially when the benefits are increasingly being questioned -- and will be even more so without hard evidence or proof of the benefits.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the F1 global television audience is nowhere near the fanciful figures that were previously trotted out.

Indeed, as we reported here a few days ago, there is now credible research suggesting that the worldwide audience for last year's season-ending Brazilian GP, with the first three-cornered climax to the world championship in more than 20 years, was about 100 million at best – way short of the 350 million, 700 million, or billion(s) that have been bandied about before as the F1 viewership.

And if 100 million is what the most crucial race of the season draws, what is the average? Renault research suggests about 50 million.

And Australia, because of its timeframe against that of the heartland audience, is always below the average. All of which adds up to a gloomy future for F1 staying in Australia.

Champ Car, the other international open-wheeler series that has long visited Australia each year (initially as Indy racing, then IndyCar, then CART and now Champ Car), has major problems too.

In many ways its problems are far bigger, although the size of the show -- in financial and audience terms -- is nowhere near as big as F1.

Champ Car has lurched from one crisis to another for almost a decade now.

Indeed, its troubles date very directly back to the big split in American open-wheeler racing in 1996, when Indianapolis Motor Speedway supreme Tony George went in one direction with his Indy Racing League and the established team owners went another with a series they owned themselves and which was known as CART.

That organisation basically went bust and the pieces of series ownership were picked up by three very wealthy men, including an Australian-born American tycoon, Kevin Kalkhoven.

The three rich men have kept a greatly diminished show afloat, but there are forever signs that they are closing to having had enough.

Matters reached new heights, or depths, very recently with a hint from CART/Champ Car's doyen team owner, Carl Haas, partner of movie icon Paul Newman, that he might switch to the IRL next year.

That would likely be the final nail in the coffin on Champ Car. And, if Champ Car fell over, where would that leave the Gold Coast "Indy", as it is still known?

Particularly as Queensland's contract with the Champ Car organisers expires this year anyway.

Some, particularly in the V8 Supercar community, would say the event could live without open-wheelers.

Indeed, they would point out that the V8 Supercars are already a lot more popular at the Gold Coast now than the greatly diminished Champ Car series with mainly little-known drivers.

As we pointed out here three or four months ago, the TV audience for Champ Cars from the Gold Coast back into the US is negligible -- another reason why they would not be greatly missed if the series went under.

There may be a possibility that, if the rump of Champ Car is rolled back into the IRL, a reunified American series could still stage an Australian round at the Gold Coast.

Indeed, it is our understanding that for a long time -- and it may still be the same, unless there has been legislative change in Queensland -- it was essential that the Gold Coast event contain an international open-wheeler category.

In the case of a unified American series, a couple of queries arise.

Tony George will clearly be the man in charge of any such merged organisation, and there will be the question of whether he will want to retain a race outside the US (although he may well, as he has been happy to take the IRL to Japan).

Another question will be whether George would want to persist with an Australian race in any revamped American series if he harbors any ambitions of getting F1 back to his beloved "Brickyard" -- the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

While F1 blotted its copybook badly in its eight years at the Brickyard, especially with the infamous six-car GP, always drew much smaller crowds than the Indy 500 and the NASCAR 400, and left even ardent race fans with a sour taste in their mouth, we suspect that George still would like to try to get F1 to work at Indianapolis.

And, for that reason, he may not want to irritate Formula One Management, particularly Bernie Ecclestone, and perhaps the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, by being involved in another international open-wheeler race in Australia in any kind of opposition to F1, if it remains here.

All of which makes us wonder whether A1's prospects in Australia are considerably better than those of either F1 or Champ Car, provided Mr Teixeira or any successor can keep bankrolling A1 for long enough for it to gain real traction.

One possibility might be that A1 could become the international component of the Gold Coast event if Champ Car folds.

And that may not be a bad solution all round.

But for now A1's Australian round is at Eastern Creek.

And it is there that Aussie driver John Martin is under pressure to perform something close to a miracle this weekend.

In his first outing as Australia's main A1 driver, rather than the rookie understudy, Martin finished ninth in the sprint race at the NZ round two weeks ago.

That was Australia's best A1 result this season.

However, Martin's chances in the longer feature race were ruined in a collision with Indian's Narain Karthikeyan soon after the start.

After the summer of cricket we've had, should we have been surprised at the Aussie and Indian drivers in the A1 series getting into a dust-up?

For this weekend, the likeable Martin -- who undoubtedly has plenty of driving talent, although we're not convinced he has the same commitment to international open-wheeler success as Mark Webber, Ryan Briscoe or Will Power -- has set his sights on top five finishes in both the sprint and feature races.

"That's where I'd like to be," said Martin, acknowledging that to do that will require him to qualify well.

We reckon that the Australia motor racing public would also adjudge fifth to be an acceptable outcome for Martin this weekend.

Meanwhile, for Karthikeyan -- who we have repeatedly pointed out here was a black driver in F1 in 2005, two years before the arrival of Lewis Hamilton, much touted last year as the first black driver in GP racing -- things may be about to take a big turn, but not in the manner of that skirmish with Martin in NZ.

Suddenly, it seems, Karthikeyan's backers, and indeed the backers of India's A1 effort, are in the frame to buy F1's Super Aguri team.

Super Aguri is a somewhat mysterious Honda satellite team in the mould of many F1 teams of the 1980s and '90s that arrived, made little impression, and promptly disappeared.

There are questions about whether Super Aguri is going to make it to Melbourne in a few weeks, let alone to the end of the world championship season in a few months.

Any new ownership may be a joint venture between India's Spice group and Japanese interests, at least in the short term, in which case British driver Anthony Davidson would be more likely than Takuma Sato to make way for Karthikeyan to return to the GP grid.

While the flicker of the F1 flame is much dimmed in Australia these days, it is well and truly alight in India, with the team that was once Jordan -- and subsequently Midland and then Spyker -- already in the hands of one Indian tycoon and perhaps another soon, ahead of F1's first GP in the country within the next couple of years.

That's the way of the world, and we just wonder whether we in Australia will be reduced to watching F1 and any American-style open-wheeler racing on TV from overseas, with our fill of international single-seater action on Australian soil coming in the not too distant future purely from A1.

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