After four seasons, the self proclaimed “World Cup of Motorsports” is hitting the brakes. It has been announced that assets of A1 GP will be sold under direction of asset sales and valuations company GoIndustry DoveBid. The London-based firm will work with the liquidators of A1 Holdings in an attempt to sell the series as a complete package to keep the series alive.
Founded by Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum of Dubai, the single make series had its inaugural season in 2005/2006 with a race calendar set between October and April to avoid competition with Formula 1. Maktoum ended his tenure as president and chairman of A1 GP in December 2006, in the midst of the second season, selling off his stake to South African buisnessman Tony Teixeira. News of the series’ financial problems and rumours that it will not make the grid this season was swirling, and came true when A1 GP did not turn up in Australia last October.
The sale includes more than 20 Ferrari designed and powered race cars (based on the Scuderia’s 2004 F1 car), 14 of the earlier Lola designed race cars and all support equipment, including a Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT and Ferrari 599 GTB, which were safety cars. Of course, the buyer would gain intellectual property rights to the A1 GP series logos and brands.
I think that A1 GP started with a promising idea by keeping the cars simple (led to close racing) and pitting country against country. After all, if people pack 80,000 capacity stadiums to cheer on their country’s football team, surely they’ll do the same for a national race team? But it never really worked out that way. I was at the Shanghai circuit for an A1 GP race and the huge grandstand wasn’t full, even on raceday, and China has a 1.3 billion population! Now, let’s see if A1 GP can find its saviour.
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the race was close….
maybe it was just lack of publicity…
I want to buy
My bid is RM1.00
RM1.20
why the hell did they use maserati? BMW IS A LOT BETTER
Now my bid : RM2.00
2.20
3.00 for me!!! haha
I bid RM5.00
My maximum bid is RM10.00
LOL :D
200 MILLION….
Oh, we forgot that people like kimi_ exist. :P
200 MILLION…. and 20 cents
RM 200,000,000.21
I'm sure Sheikh Maktoum has made his millions when he sold his stake just after 1 years. Maybe he knew this won't last for long "hangat-hangat tahi ayam"; He's having a very loud laugh right now, I bet.
heat heat chicken shit to be exact. LOL :D
It was doom to failed even on the 1st place, even worse when the Skeih pulled out from the event hence financial backing is in ruins. The cars are not exciting and mostly the racers are dull. But the series is also known to produce future F1 drivers like Nico Hulkenburg, Nelson Piquiet Jr and few more. Also this is one of the few events that Malaysian team did very well.
I beg to differ on some points. The racing itself was more exciting to watch than the yawn-fest called F1. It just lacked the 'sexyness' of F1 which was unrelated to the track action anyway. It was also the ONLY high level single seater series that saw a Malaysian team involved in, at that time. The fact that they did relatively well was icing on the cake.
The series had future F1 drivers, current F1 drivers (Tonio Liuzzi etc) and past F1 drivers (Dornboos, Verstappen, etc)
There were plenty of action most of the time in the racing.
Race is finished.
Dubai has been hit by financial crisis.
Tun M or our current PM shld buy it. remember in the past, thaksin even bought a football team. is great for the sport n the world too.
bazir duit rakyat! dh la byk membazir…tambah satu lg…bangkrap la Malaysia jawabnya
Anything to do with Dubai is f**ked now! There're just wolfs in sheepskin.
or rather a sheep in a wolfskin? Lol
@Mango,
i like your idea.. LOL :P
not enough media coverage and advertising is what killed A1GP
Fans in Malaysia followed it because they were interested in the Malaysian team rather than the series itself. Despite the lack of publicity in KL when A1GP arrived every year at Sepang, the grand stands were well filled on race day because they supported the home team
Ask 1Malaysia goons to buy this A1GP lor…..
I'm they would buy anything as long as there is "1" in it….asp. the trend now is satu malaysia. LOL
Yeah, rite on man…. Now everything is '1blablabla…..'
i agree with u bijan, sure its a good idea to buy this junk racing series. A1GP change top A1Malaysian GP. ermm.. think about it! it can promote malaysian and our PM will be so "bangga" due to wut his bring with the slogan "Perlumbaan Di Dahulukan, Pencapaian Pelumba Di Utamakan" heh.. walauweeeeeee. Wakaka – 88x
later if they buy it.. you'll way wasting rakyat's money =p
the car is so 'F1' like. perhaps a few sports car from individual country might spice up the sports.
Britain – McLaren/Lotus
America – Mustang
Japan – Mitsubishi/Lancer
German – Posche/Mercedez/BMW
Italy – Ferrari
France – Peugeot
these markets are big enough to sustain itself.
make a race wit very loose rules regarding limitation of speed. n see more crashes n blazing craziness from drivers with mad courage. and u will see ticket sales sky rocket. a safe slow race is boring. its good for the sports image.. but bad for business….
haha gotta make race like DEATH RACE(film)..LOL
You mean make it to be like NASCAR?
Way cool. Better yet, lets have it TopGear way. Instead of racing a F1 like car, why don't we race the airport equipment, ambulances, buses and bullock carts.
It is going to be hilarious.
Anyone who thinks the racing in A1GP was crap should see this short video made by the Malaysian team. Turn up your speakers.
Link below:
http://tinyurl.com/ye3kexj
Bunch of other vids of the team also here:
http://tinyurl.com/ykmbtz2
The reason why this crap series went busted is because, of the drivers. Every season new drivers joins race for a few races and jumped to another series. So how do you build your fan base like this? Even if u build your fanbase based on country, sooner or later ppl will get bored of supporting an empty contender.
Luckly F1 does not have this problem!
That is not why the series went bust. Some teams like Ireland, Netherlands and Malaysia enjoyed strong fan support despite having more than one driver driving for the country. A lot of the team support was actually for the country rather than just driver and there were inter-country rivalry in A1GP.
There is another sport similar to this type of fan support. It's got 2 teams of 11 members chasing 1 ball on a piece of grass. The 11 members are playing for the pride of their country. This peculiar sporting event happens once every 4 years. The event name consists of two words, first begins with W, second begins with C. Ring a bell?
Yet the same fans can support and differentiate that against another similar sporting event called Champions League or EPL which is based on team clubs rather than team nation.
See the difference? See why A1GP could appeal to fans even with F1 existing?
Maybe Ferrari saw A1 GP a threat to F1 and it has a lot of interest in F1. So they decided to jack up prices and make things hard for A1 GP? Eitherway, I think its better we follow the finnish way, in top gear. Race with old dilapidated cars.
no thanks, we r not interested… u can keep it to urself :-)
Racing series will always be about commercial things- manufacturers, proffesional teams, sponsors. Racing team represented by country name , just ain't gonna work or last long.
A1GP started out as an Asian stepping stone to GP2 and F1, but 'certain' people thought they could be as big as F1 and decided to go global, but no single make series is ever going to be as big as F1 because there is zero interest in the cars if they are all identical.
It lost $5,000,000 dollars in its firs year, then was sold to Tony Teixeira when Al Maktoum's dad wouldn't give him any more money for his plaything, and every year it lost more and more money, until debts were running at $80,000,000.
Team New Zealand had to pay for all the other teams to get to one race, even when the directors of A1GP were paying themselves $500,000 and spending $50,000 on paddock parties, then Tony Teixeira illegally gave the US franchise to another team and was successfully sued in court, and then took money for the Australian race but didn't turn up.
Plus a lot of the drivers were just rich playboys who couldn't get a drive even in Formula Ford, so the series collapsed as a joke and with debts that no one wants to acknowledge … And when are people going to get paid? Tony Teixeira still hasn't paid anyone for the 2008 South African round yet !!
A1GP was and still is an embarrassment to global Motor sport.
No, Ferrari did not see A1GP as a threat to their F1 programme. In fact there was speculation that Ferrari was willing to deal with A1GP because they wanted to threaten F1 itself . At the time Ferrari was threatening to leave F1, remember?
The Scuderia Ferrari F1 team hand nothing to do with the programme thay had with A1GP. That was supported by their GT racing division, Michelotto
The cars themselves were not designed and built by Ferrari. It was all done by A1GP with minor consultation from Ferrari. A1GP just used the brand association. The only thing that came from Ferrari was the V8 engine which was crap and actually a race tuned version of the California and 458 Italia road engine. Magnetti Marelli also part of the deal.
A1GP crashed due to their own mismanagement. The concept was actually very viable. They just partied too much and ran it to the ground.
LOL, satu lagi projek dari Kerajaan Dubai down the toilet. This is what happens when money does not meet brains
The whole country financial in verge of collapse, still they are spending $$$ like wasting amount of water.
A1GP was sold by the Sheikh in 2007 for 100 million pounds to RAB Capital according to the press. RAB then went and bought Northern Rock Bank that went Bank rupt. I heard it was very profitable till the new management took it over.
LOL some Malaysians must truly enjoy their favourite past time of 'kicking the dead horse'. Someone mentioned 'brains' in the same post mentioning failure of the 'Kerajaan Dubai'. If the post is trying to demonstrate a lack of brains in the post itself, that I agree.
A1GP is not another Dubai govt project and is in no way related to the recession they're going through but we love to kick the dead horse anyway.
The Sheikh exited around 2007. A1GP is A1GP and failed by its own not because of the Sheikh or the Dubai govt. The Sheikh had nothing to do with A1GP since then. Get the correct facts please.
It's also not meant as a feeder to GP2. It was designed to be an alternative series away from F1. It was not designed to fit within the single seater ladder of F1. Just as how Indycar is not part of the F1 ladder. A1GP was never meant to rival F1. Simply unrealistic to try and think so.
Despite the lack of proper sustained A&P effort, A1GP was relatively successful in terms of exposure and was better than any other of the non F1 single seater series in the world(ignoring US series). I dare say that it was only bettered by F1 but of course by a very long shot. A 4 year old series can possibly compete against a 50 year old series.
Clearly Maktoum took Teixeira for a ride, racing aside. The former wins millions and accolades, and the latter is a humiliated loser. Of course, Teixeira probably thought Maktoum would bring him riches instead of ruin. The smarter man prevailed, and a racing series died. Teixeira can redeem himself only through racing, and Maktoum can continue to sheikh up the world. Who would you rather be?
Maktoum took Texeira for a ride,??
Ermm I think it was more the other way around. Texeira unabashedly lied to everyone including the Australian govt about the financial situation of the series. Everyone’s pissed off at Texeira not Maktoum. The Sheikh was long out of it and it was a good move by him.
Maybe you confused the difference between the words “former” and “latter?” but it looks like we agree. I’m saying Maktoum took the guy for a nice ride in the start, and once Maktoum left with the profits, then Teixeira started making his biggest lies and stupidly promoting F1 while F1 was busy adopting some of A1’s traits. So, I was suggesting one would rather be the successful Maktoum than the failed Teixeira, and that Maktoum has credibility today to do more business while Teixeira has a lot of wrongs to right in racing before he can even begin to be credible again anywhere in the world.
Maktoum hasher has a history of being involved in fraud. just look at the Dubai real estate scandals where he published fake construction photos to cheat foreign investors. Sheikh maktoum hasher, Sheikha Maryam hasher and their father sheikh hasher maktoum are facing $1.9 billion fraud case against them in dubai court. Looks like we all were fooled by the name “Al Maktoum”.
“Dubai resident ” the last posted was posted by Shahram Abdulla Zadah a well known Co artist. who was a poor son of shawarma sales men who then became a realestate sales man. He was given a chance to run a property company establisheed since 1960 he then embezzeled 60 million dollars through rotation of funds through the company. When he got caught. he filled a frivoulous aw suit and hired a small PR firm in Germany hoping to sette but was shoked when one of his co conspiraters gave evidence against him and ran. I guess the PR firm still is bloging for him
I used to be a fan but ever since i realised that Maktoum hasher al maktoum is a baloon of hot air with a very dark past and present i have switched back to F1.
Texeira is no better just the same.
Unfortunately Sheikh Maktoum Hasher was too smart even for his own tricks.
Everything he has touched have turned into International embaressment for Dubai Ruling Family.
Fake construsction photos, false estimates of A1GP vlues and revenues, Dubai Court Case $1.9 Billion Fraud
Under Criminal Investigation with arrest warrant in Germany… Just google sheikh maktoum hasher and judge for yourself.
Sheikh maktoum Hasher used to be a nice guy when he was a poor member of dubai ruling family
But when he saw money he couldn’t resist doing anything to steal it.
Asa proud emirati I am ashamed of having sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Juma Al Maktoum to be a member of the Dubai Ruling Family involved in so many cases of fraud. Our visionary Ruler is being misled about the various scams of sheikh Maktoum Hasher despite the international media reporting it has still managed to run away from being prosecuted. Dubai is a very nice place welcoming everyone and its sad that a low life con artist sheikh has managed to destroy our image and reputation. Please everyone dont judge all os us because sheikh maktoum hasher has been involved in a few fraud scandals.
It’s very sad because I never had the chance to see a race with Ferrari engines, that season the race here in Mexico was cancelled for the AH1N1 virus, and for 2010 the series was gone, such a shame! anyway I have great memories from 2007 and 2008.