All images: John Travis
A1GP – POWERED BY FERRARI
Part of the design brief was that the car have a ‘family resemblance’ to the 2004 Ferrari F1 car. Rory Byrne designed that one, and was tasked with overseeing the A1GP project in a similar capacity. Shown is the finished car at Fiorano for its first test
Full speed ahead
Former technical director and chief designer, John Travis, explains how A1GP’s second generation racecar was conceived, designed and delivered as a full grid in under a year By JAMES KMIECIAK
K
nown as the ‘World Cup of Motorsport’, A1GP began in 2005 / ’6 with a racecar based on a Lola B05/52 chassis, powered by a 3.4-litre Zytek V8, and clad in a stylised bodywork and aerodynamics package that led to it being dubbed, not altogether unkindly, ‘the Batmobile’. It produced ferocious racing and partisan crowds wherever it travelled, which, in turn, attracted future F1, WEC and DTM
46 www.racecar-engineering.com APRIL 2022
drivers and engineers to the international one-make series. By the 2007 / ’8 season, it regularly delivered what F1 was lacking at the time – overtaking and spectacle. After three seasons of events, in which nations rather than teams and drivers competed against each other, and with what later transpired to be somewhat curious finances bubbling beneath the surface, a decision was made to build a brand new car. The reason for this sudden shift was led by
an offer from a new engine supplier. Coming off the back of the dominant Schumacher era in F1, and with a recently crowned champion in Raikkonen, nobody hid the fact this was largely a marketing exercise. The caché of Ferrari involvement brought undoubted value to the series and helped to promote Ferrari’s road car division. However, even that brand value wasn’t enough as the category lasted for just one further season (2008 / ’9) before it went into liquidation.
