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Anderson: A1 more challenging than F1

Former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson says that A1 GP is surprisingly more competitive than he first thought. Anderson joined Team Ireland in December to head the engineering side of the team and having doubted the series previously he is now singing its praises.

"I was a bit confused about the whole country verses country thing," he told a1gp.com.

"I've always, all my life, supported a racing driver in a car. I wasn't sure the public would buy into the country thing, but having been to two races now I think A1GP is a fantastic concept and I find myself standing on the pit wall shouting 'come on, you've got to get past that USA car!'.

"It's completely against everything I've done before, which is support a driver, but I now think it's actually pretty damn good," he said.

Anderson, who has experience in a diverse range of formulas such as F1, Indycar, F3 and F3000, also feels the pressure of there being less room for error in such a tight series.

"Any formula, no matter what it is, is competitive; between the teams, the drivers, the engineers. I find with A1GP, because it's a one make series and there are limited set up bits you can fiddle with, your avenues are more limited so you have to get it right. It was tougher than I thought, and the competition level was as well to be honest," he said.

Anderson was a veteran technical figure in the 1990s for Formula One having designed the first Jordan Grand Prix car in 1991 before continuing to produce competitive cars on a limited budget. However, he still thinks that A1 GP could be even tougher than his time in F1.

"If you find a problem in F1 there's a solution because you can do anything. In A1GP you identify where your deficits are and you have to deal with them with what's in your box of bits. To be honest it's probably more challenging in A1 than F1," he added.

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