The A1 Team New Zealand is the New Zealand team of the international racing series, A1 Grand Prix. Its car was presented to the public at New Zealand House in London. Named Black Beauty, it is painted a glossy black which is the traditional colour for New Zealand sporting teams, and has the silver-fern design prominently displayed. Because the series is a competition between countries, the A1 cars will display country recognition codes rather than numbers which traditionally identify drivers. A1 Team New Zealand has NZL in white on the car, but the Kiwis hope this will be in gold lettering next year, (the defending champion country will have the right to use the gold colour).
| A1 Team New Zealand | |
|---|---|
| NZL | |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Seat holder(s) | Colin Giltrap |
| Team principal | Bob McMurray |
| Race driver(s) | Jonny Reid, Matt Halliday |
| First race | - |
| Championships | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Total points | 0 |
| 2005-06 position | - (0 pts) |
Owners
The team was formed by and is owned by prominent Auckland businessman Colin Giltrap. The team is managed by Kiwi Bob McMurray who retired last year after nearly 30 years involvement with the McLaren Formula One racing team. The car is prepared in London by West Surrey Racing which specialises in race car preparation and is owned by a New Zealander.
Sponsor
The major sponsor is Fisher and Paykel, a longtime appliance manufacturer in New Zealand. The company was formed in 1934 by Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel who sold surplus refrigerators. They began manufacturing a few years later, and gradually expanded operations over the years to become an exporter in the late 1960s and to become a public company in 1979. The company has restructured several times, introduced innovative and diversified appliance product lines, and now exports to more than 80 countries.
Drivers
Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday are the two nominated drivers for the team. In testing for the first event, Reid was fractionally quicker than Halliday, but as Halliday will not be available for the second round because of Bathurst 1000 comittments, he was selected to drive in the opening event. It has been postulated that Scott Dixon may drive at the end of the IRL season, on the European tracks he has raced on previously. Dixon is a seasoned road racer and coincidentally, on the day of the first A1 GP, he won the IRL road race at Watkins Glen in the US. There is also mention that the car may be driven in the Australian round at Eastern Creek by Greg Murphy who is a noted New Zealand driver in the Australian V8 Supercar series with considerable single-seat racing experience and success.
O5-06 Team New Zealand results
Chief executive McMurray said a few days before this first race at Brands Hatch that although Reid and Halliday had been in the top five during shakedown tests of the Lola race cars, they would be disadvantaged at Brands because neither had ever raced there and he expected the team to gradually improve performance during the season. In qualifying, Reid was unlucky to strike a wet track, but in the dry Halliday was able to put the car on the front row of the grid beside polesitter Nelson Piquet Jr of Brazil. Halliday was chopped off on a corner early in the sprint race but manged a creditable third place. His engine stalled at the start of the warmup lap for the main race and he had to start from the pit lane, at the very back of the field. Piquet's excellent driving to win both races was clearly dominant, but Halliday's drive through the strung-out field to take fourth place was a standout performance which left New Zealand in third place overall after both races.
| 05-06 GPs | Qualifier | Race driver | Grid | Race 1 | Race 2 | Points | Cumulative | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brands Hatch | Matt Halliday | Matt Halliday | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 15 | 15 | 3rd |
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| Australia | ||||||||
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| Dubai | ||||||||
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| Brazil | ||||||||
| Mexico | ||||||||
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| China |