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Bad weekend in China for Dutch

A1 Team Netherlands has had to finish a difficult weekend in Shanghai without points. Problems with the engine, which was replaced, and damage to the monocoque, made it impossible for the team to get into a position to fight for the podium places or points.

After the bad qualifying result A1 Team Netherlands faced the huge task to come from the back of the grid and still book a decent result in the two races on the 4.6 km long circuit. After qualifying on Saturday it was already discovered that an engine problem had cost about seven tenths per lap. When the engine was replaced, another problem with the car came to light. With the Durban Feature race crash, the monocoque also had been damaged, causing the car to lose stiffness. Unfortunately this damage could not be repaired in time. 

Jeroen Bleekemolen commented, "A dramatic weekend, that much is clear. In our worst weekends of the last two seasons we were always in the back of the top 10 during races. The fact that we were this far in the back of the field proves how major the problem with the car is. It is not something you can solve with another set-up, we were much to slow for that. So, it clearly is a big problem with the monocoque. We have three weeks to solve it and maybe build another car for Brands Hatch. We are all going to do our very best to finish the season on a high. With a good weekend we should be able to climb a bit in the Championship during the final races."

Jan Lammers added, "This raceweekend clearly was a nightmare. After the crash in Durban our car has never been the same. Of course we have replaced every component you can think of since then, except for the chassis and team wear. We will change the chassis for the race at Brands Hatch in three weeks time and test our current chassis on torsion stiffness. If the performance is this bad you cannot find the words to describe it. It clearly is a fundamental problem and not a question of tweaking details. Because it is an unusual situation we cannot use common sense as guidelines, we cannot even overlook the very obvious. So, an unforgettable bad weekend."

A1 Team Netherlands has now dropped to eighth in the Championship. With 32 points left to win A1 Team Netherlands is three points behind Germany and Ireland, 12 behind South Africa and 19 behind Great Britain.

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