I don’t think you can rule out any of the races though as we’ve been competitive everywhere. There’s even a question mark over whether we should have got the win last time out in Malaysia. The team would contend that the German squad infringed the rules with their push start in the pits during the feature race, Hulkenberg subsequently took the win ahead of Robbie in the British car!
Q:
What’s the single biggest thing that’s surprised you about this season’s A1GP competition?
JS:
The biggest surprise was how successful the first event was. I think Zandvoort was an incredible testimony to what A1GP can achieve. People supported the Dutch flag and the fact that Jos Verstappen didn’t race proved not to be an issue in the end of the day. Supporting your nation, that’s simply got to be the strength of A1GP. That’s something we have to build upon. We have to make sure that people come to races and support their teams.
It should also be remembered that China, despite the problems with the track layout in Beijing, created another first for both A1GP and motorsport marking the first time an international race had been held in the capital city. Other surprises include the strength of the competition, there are some very talented young drivers competing this season and that’s reflected in the fact that nobody’s running away with the championship this year. It’s been a very open championship so-far, there have been some exciting races and it could go all the way down to the wire.
Q:
With the final round of the 2006-07 A1GP season taking place on home soil at Brands Hatch in April, what can the British crowd expect to see this time round and based on the experience of last year’s race, what are your expectations for the weekend?
JS:
I think the crowd can expect to see us making a damn good effort to win. We’ll be trying our up most to ensure that our driver and team have all the tools in place to get the job done. I’m sure we’ll be competitive, we certainly were at the opening race last year and I’m confident we’ll be even more so on our return to
Brands Hatch.
