Analysis Of Performance - And What's Possible With 2 Rounds To Go
A1 Team Malaysia went away with a seventh and a eleventh in the Mexican round last weekend but more preciously were the 4 points scored in the Sprint race's seventh position which propelled Malaysia from ninth to seventh in this inaugural A1 Grand Prix also known as the "World Cup of Motorsports".
The nations which the Malaysian team leapfrogged over were Ireland and Portugal which had even less to show as Ireland had two non-finishes while Portugal had a non-finish in the Sprint race and a tenth with one point in the Feature race.
A recap of the results for the team over the nine rounds run thus far showed seven top tenth qualifying in nine rounds with a highest qualifying position of sixth in the Indonesian round and 11 top ten race results over 18 races with the best race result a second in the Indonesian round.
The team's performance at the mandatory pitstops of the Feature race to change tyres seemed to be lacking as there was not a single time where the team has not lost positions to other teams in the pitstop - in fact on some occasions the team lost as much as fifteen positions to other teams following a pitstop.
Car set up also clearly did not allow the Malaysian team to run as quick as the top two teams which are the championship leaders France and Switzerland. This definitely posed a serious obstacle for the team to make a serious bid to run in the front with France.
So, where does that leave the Malaysian team in relation to the 25 A1 national teams that have started the championship?
The answer is indisputably top-seven using the championship standings after Mexico as a marker. And perhaps top-five if we consider the fact that the team finished in the top-five in 5 races and the team missed out on the top-five in 6 races when the team had disastrous pitstops.
In comparison with other Asian teams, Malaysia at 7th is on top of the Asian pile as the nearest rival Indonesia in a lowly 19th position followed by Japan, China and Pakistan in 20th to 22nd positions and India yet to score a single point.
Twenty championship points tantalisingly separate Malaysia in 7th and Great Britain in 3rd. Do we dare dream that the chase for Malaysia to dislodge the GB team from 3rd with 40 maximum points available in the 2 remaining rounds of USA and China is possible?
We say anything is possible as the teams ahead of the Malaysian team's route to be the third best team in the world are afterall, Britain, Brazil, Netherlands and New Zealand, all of which the Malaysian team has the measure of - but with a qualification, the team will need to improve on the pitstop performance and dial the car in with the perfect balance for the remaining 2 races.
If, in the end Malaysia cannot be the third best A1GP team in the world, the team can reasonably be expected to reel in New Zealand which lies sixth with a 11 point advantage over Malaysia - "the sixth best team in the world" amongst 25 national teams - no one will disagree that this will be a great achievement for Malaysia.
Championship Standings After Rd 9 Mexico1 France 1532 Switzerland 1213 Great Britain 734 Brazil 705 Netherlands 696 New Zealand 647 Malaysia 538 Portugal 519 Ireland 5010 Canada 4411 Czech Republic 4112 Italy 4013 Australia 3714 Mexico 2815 Germany 2516 South Africa 2017 USA 2018 Austria 1219 Indonesia 1020 Japan 821 China 622 Pakistan 4Rd 10 USA 10-12 Mar 06: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, California
