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Ammermuller looks back at interesting season

It was certainly a stand-out season for A1 Team Germany's Michael Ammermuller.
When not making the headlines for his front-running pace, he was for earning penalties and gaining notoriety for being the only driver this season to be excluded from a race. Twice.

He literally went from one extreme to the next. From the despair of being disqualified for his third successive driving offence in Sepang, Malaysia, he went to the ecstasy of becoming Germany's second winner by dominating the Sprint race in Zhuhai, the very next race.

His pace was always there but, for numerous reasons, it rarely translated into results. His average qualifying position over his 14 caps was seventh, however, his average finishing position was 13th.

Aside from the penalties, there was a raft of incidents that could not be classed as his fault. He didn't even get to complete a lap of the Sprint race in Mexico when he was clattered from behind as the rolling start began, and there was the podium-robbing example where a freak stone damaged a valve and deflated a tyre in the Feature race at Brands Hatch.

"We did a great job this season, it's just we didn't have a lot of luck," the 22-year-old said. "Sometimes we got disqualified and sometimes we had some bad luck. In the end it wasn't a lot of good results.

"Sometimes we were really good and didn't have that bad luck to go with it, but this wasn't very often during the season."

Driving for the majority of the season for the reigning champion meant that Ammermuller was a natural focus of media attention.

And despite the rollercoaster of emotions he experienced, he is keen on returning in 2008/09 in the next generation of A1GP cars, powered by Ferrari. He is hoping Germany's renowned engineering expertise will help him be the fastest to get to grips with the new breed of cars.

"I would like to drive the new car, it is going to be really interesting, but I don't know what [seat holder] Willi Weber will do next year," he added. "But [if I'm asked] I would really like to test and do some races for Germany next season.

"Nobody knows the [ideal] set-up for the car yet or which team will get the new car sorted out the quickest. So, at the moment you can't say a lot about who will be fighting at the front. But for sure we will try to get another title.

"Our team has a lot of experience and we will be fast, very soon with the new car and maybe get an advantage. It could be easier to win races because the others will not learn as quickly."

"If we can do well at the start of the season, then maybe we can go for that second title."

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