A1 Team Australia was the Australian team of

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 ...

, an international racing series.

Management

The team chairman is former

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, ...

world champion Alan Jones, backed by general manager and former

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

driver Peter Nolan. The seat is owned by Formula One talent-spotter come principal engineer

Alan Docking Alan may refer to: People * Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * ...

through his eponymous racing team organisation.

History

Will Power William "Will" Steven Power (born 1 March 1981) is an Australian motorsports driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske. He is the 2014 and 2022 IndyCar Series champion and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion. ...

was the team's driver for the opening round at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

, scoring a fourth place in the Sprint Race and a second in the Main Race, beaten only by

Nelson Piquet Jr. Nelson Angelo Tamsma Piquet Souto Maior (born July 25, 1985), also known as Nelson Piquet Junior or Nelsinho Piquet, is a Brazilian stock car racing driver and former Formula One and Formula E driver where he was champion in the 2014–15 seaso ...

who dominated the weekend. Power amassed 16 points for these two results; however, he had already signed for

Champ Cars Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

Team Australia Team Australia was an auto racing team competing in the V8 Supercars and Champ Car World Series. It was created in early 2005 when two Australian businessmen Craig Gore and John Fish bought into Derrick Walker's Walker Racing operation. After ...

and made no further appearance in A1GP. His replacement was seat owner Jones' son Christian Jones, who did not fare so well; round two in Germany provided no points and a best finish of fourteenth place. The uncompetitive Jones was replaced with

Will Davison William 'THE SOOK' Davison (born 30 August 1982) is an Australian professional racing driver. He currently drives the No.17 Ford Mustang GT for Dick Johnson Racing in the Repco Supercars Championship. Davison is a two-time winner of the Bathur ...

for round three in Portugal, and despite a qualifying performance of 18th place and a first-lap retirement in the Sprint Race, secured sixth place and five points in the Main Race. Davison was maintained for the home round at

Eastern Creek Raceway Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western Sy ...

, and again provided a sixth-place Main Race result. Davison consistently scored better in the Main Race in his drives, securing a one-point tenth place in the UAE round, although retiring from the main race in Durban. Contract obligations again caused a driver change when Davison switched to

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

; Australia's fourth driver of the season was

Marcus Marshall Marcus Marshall (born 25 November 1978) is a former Champ Car driver from Australia. Biography He began racing in British Formula Three, where he was generally a running outside the top ten, but took a hard-fought win in a wet race. He contes ...

, who scored the team's first podium since the opening round with a third-place finish in Indonesia. He also moved into V8 Supercars however, and the driver's seat reverted to Christian Jones, who was again uncompetitive. The seat for the last two rounds was awarded to

Ryan Briscoe Ryan Briscoe (born 24 September 1981) is an Australian-American professional racing driver from Sydney who has predominantly raced open-wheel and sports cars in Europe and America. In IndyCar he collected 8 wins and 28 podiums, finishing third ...

, who matched Power and Marshall's podium feat in the final round

in China IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independ ...

, with a main race third-place finish. In total, Australia's best results were a second place and two third places, for a total of 51 points and 13th place in the first-ever A1GP championship. Although Team Australia managed to secure three podium finishes during the 2006-07 season, they still finished the championship in 13th position with 25 points. Team Australia finished the 2007–08 season in 17th position, but did manage to score points in both the Sprint and Feature races of their home race. In the 2008–09 season, Team Australia scored their first ever fastest lap in the final race of the season, however just narrowly missed out on beating

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the final standings, finishing 8th.

Drivers

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

), "spr" indicates the Sprint Race, "fea" indicates the Feature Race.

References

A1 GP news story about Ian Dyk

External links

A1gp.com Official A1 Grand Prix Web SiteOfficial Team Website - A1 Team Australia
{{National sports teams of Australia Australia A1 team Australian auto racing teams A1 Auto racing teams established in 2005 Auto racing teams disestablished in 2009