A1GP Powered by Ferrari car is a vehicle designed to compete in the

A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most for ...

. The chassis is based on the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Ferrari F2004 The F2004 is a highly successful Formula One racing car that was used by Ferrari for the 2004 Formula One season. The chassis was designed by Rory Byrne, Ignazio Lunetta, Aldo Costa, Marco Fainello, John Iley and James Allison with Ross Brawn ...

chassis. It is made from carbon-fibre skins with an aluminium honeycomb core, and has been tested to meet all

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

crash safety standards. Only 23 cars were ever made.

Design

History

On October 11, 2007, A1GP and

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

announced a six-year collaboration on the new generation of A1GP cars. The new "Powered by Ferrari" car is a modification of the

chassis with a V8

engine producing 600

bhp BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

. The car was officially revealed in

Southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...

, and driven for the first time by John Watson in an inaugural event in May 2008.

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

supplied the tyres for the new car. The car was developed and tested over more than at

Mugello Circuit Mugello Circuit () is a race track in Scarperia e San Piero, Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The circuit length is . It has 15 turns and a long straight. The circuit stadium stands have a capacity of 50,000. Grand Prix motorcycle racing host an ann ...

Fiorano Circuit The Fiorano Circuit () is a private racetrack owned by Ferrari for development and testing purposes. It is located in Fiorano Modenese, near the Italian town of Maranello. The circuit has FIA Grade 1 license. Work begun in 1971 and officially ...

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola, is a motor racing circuit in the town of Imola, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, east of Bologna. It is one of the few major international circuits to run in an an ...

, Circuito Guadix,

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ho ...

and

Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours is a motor racing circuit located in central France, near the towns of Magny-Cours and Nevers, some from Paris and from Lyon. It staged the Formula One French Grand Prix from 1991 (succeeding Circuit Paul Ricard ...

Andrea Bertolini Andrea Bertolini (born 1 December 1973, in Sassuolo) is an Italian professional racing driver currently driving for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is the official test driver of the Maserati factory. Bertolini began racing at ...

was the main test driver, but testing was carried out by

Marc Gené Marc Gené i Guerrero (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish professional racing driver. He is best known as a tester for Williams and Ferrari in Formula One, Minardi Formula One driver and factory driver for Peugeot's Le Mans team, with which he w ...

Patrick Friesacher Patrick Friesacher (born 26 September 1980) is an Austrian racing driver. He is the longest-serving Red Bull driver, and also drove for the Minardi Formula One team during the first half of the 2005 season. After his departure from Formula One, ...

Jonny Kane Jonny is a masculine given name, and pet name, in the English language. A pet form of Jon, the natural diminutive of given name Jonathan, in some cases it can also mean a condom. A variant form of ''Jonny'' is ''Jonnie''. People with the name *J ...

and

Danny Watts Danny Watts is a British professional racing driver. Career He was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racing in 1998 in the UK Formula First ch ...

during the sessions at

. On July 22, 2008, information regarding the then-new "Powered by Ferrari" A1GP car was revealed. On August 2–3

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, the first

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

and public presentation of this car was held on the

TT Circuit Assen The TT Circuit Assen is a motorsport race track built in 1955 and located in Assen, Netherlands. Host of the Dutch TT, it is popularly referred to as "The Cathedral" of motorcycling by the fans of the sport. The venue has the distinction of hold ...

with former

A1 Team Netherlands A1 Team Netherlands was the Dutch team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series. Management A1 Team Netherlands' owner was former Formula One driver and Le Mans winner Jan Lammers. The team was managed by Lammers's racing team Racing f ...

driver,

Renger van der Zande Renger van der Zande (born 16 February 1986) is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zan ...

. Two weeks after, the car was presented in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

during the Bavaria City Racing Festival. The

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

was driven by

Carlo van Dam Carlo van Dam (born 27 February 1986 in Vlaardingen) is a Dutch racing driver. He is currently a factory driver for Subaru and he is the reserve and tear driver for R&D Sport in the Super GT Series while driving for Subaru Tecnica International ...

. Pre-season tests of the new 'powered by Ferrari' car took place on consecutive weekends in September at

Mugello The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Flo ...

and

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

.Two major test sessions planned
''a1gp.com'' (June 9, 2008) It was only used for the 2008–2009 season as the series was cancelled for the next season.

PowerBoost

While the number of PowerBoost uses remain unchanged from Zytek era (4 times in Sprint races and 8 times in Feature races), a new rule for the season allowed drivers to use it for the entirety of a single lap during qualifying sessions. Each car is equipped with a unique PowerBoost system, a mechanism to provide short bursts of increased power to create additional overtaking opportunities and action throughout the race. By changing the engine's parameters, the system can give the driver additional power over a limited time during each race to take the car from the base to its maximum power of . The PowerBoost is driver-activated by a button mounted on the steering wheel. While the number of PowerBoost uses remain unchanged from Zytek era (4 times in Sprint races and 8 times in Feature races), a new rule for the season allowed drivers to use it for the entirety of a single lap during qualifying sessions.

Wheels and tyres

was contracted to be the exclusive tyre supplier for three seasons beginning with 2008–09 season. Only one season was completed under this contract as the series was cancelled afterwards. Wheel rims were supplied by

OZ Racing OZ Group is an Italian company founded in 1971 that produces car and motorcycle wheels, specifically alloy wheels. They are an OEM supplier to a number of manufacturers in addition to aftermarket sales and are a prominent wheel supplier in motor ...

Engine

The engine is built by

. It is a 4.5-litre Ferrari F136

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

capable of delivering in PowerBoost mode. The new engine weighs 160 kg, 40 kg more than the previously-used

Zytek Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at Repton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson as "Zytek Engineering" in 1981. In 1981 Gibson founded the "Zytech Group" with two main divisions: Zytek Automotive, b ...

engines. *Configuration: 90 degree V8 *

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

: *Width: *Height: *Length: *Weight: *

Cylinder block In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure which contains the cylinders and other components. In an early automotive engine, the engine block consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attac ...

: Die-cast aluminium alloy *

Cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ov ...

: Sand-cast aluminium alloy *

Valvetrain A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...

: 4 overhead camshafts, 4 valves per cylinder *Engine Management: Bosch MED 9.6 *Injection: Gasoline direct injection *

Spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...

s: NGK *Fuel:

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

E10 102 RON *Max

Torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

: *Max power: *Max speed:

Technical Specifications

*Weight: Approx including driver, race-ready (excluding fuel) *Front and rear suspension: Double wishbone with pushrod operated coil-over damper units. Adjustable ride height, cambers and toe, adjustable anti-dive and anti-squat to optimize drive control *Anti-roll bar: Multi-adjustable, quick-change front, and rear roll bars *Chassis: Carbon fiber skins, aluminum honeycomb core. Tested to meet all applicable FIA crash safety standards *Bodywork: Lightweight composite bodywork *Gearbox: Six-speed longitudinal sequential. Gear selection via a Magneti Marelli semi-automatic paddle-shift system *Driveline: Tripod jointed driveshafts *Brakes: Brembo carbon discs, six-pot aluminum calipers *Dampers: Penske VBP-45, two-way adjustable *Wheels: Front 13” dia. X 12” Rear 13” dia. X 14” *Steering: Titan angle drive bevel and two-pinion ratios *Steering wheel: diameter carbon, with mounted LCD dash *Instrumentation and display:

Magneti Marelli Magneti Marelli S.p.A. () is an Italian developer and manufacturer of components for the automotive industry. The firm is headquartered in Corbetta, Italy, and includes 86 manufacturing plants, 12 R&D centres, and 26 application centers in 19 c ...

mounted display unit; Multi-channel logging facility for engineering analysis *Seat belt: FIA approved

Sabelt Sabelt S.p.A. is an Italian company founded in 1972 by Piero and Giorgio Marsiaj, that designs and manufactures original equipment (OEM) car seats, seat belts, motorsport products, and seatbelts for military, aviation, and aerospace applications ...

six-point safety harness *Fuel cell: ATL fuel cell approximately capacity and designed to take up to 50 percent ethanol *Clutch: AP three-plate carbon/carbon with steel hub *Tyres: Michelin control slick and treaded wet tires

References

{{Scuderia Ferrari

A1GP A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most for ...

Open wheel racing cars