Asian Motor Sports

A1 Team Malaysia has arrived in China for the final event in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series. The eleventh weekend of racing will take place at Shanghai International Circuit with Alex Yoong driving for the team at this state of the art motor racing venue. Lying tenth in the World Cup of Motorsport standings, A1 Team Malaysia is hoping to finish the season with two strong race results.

Shanghai International Circuit is located outside the city, a venue built on marshland, which required 40,000 stabilising pillars before the land could be developed. The 5.4 km track is shaped as the Chinese character, ‘Shang’, which stands for ‘high’ or ‘above’. Other symbols represented in the architecture originate from Chinese history, such as the team buildings arranged like pavilions in a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. Here, nature and technology are carefully used to create harmony between the elements.

The track features change of acceleration and deceleration in different winding turns, and high-speed straights which make high demands on the driver as well as the car. This should offer many opportunities for overtaking and give an intense and exciting motorsport experience for the spectators. The Main Grandstand with 29,000 seats provides a spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the circuit.

Alex Yoong looks forward to driving the circuit in the A1 car and says, “Shanghai is a fairly new circuit and shares the same designer as for Sepang, Hermann Tilke so there are a number of characteristics which are similar, not least the high-tech, modern architecture of the facility. It’s another of the many new experiences for both me and the team, and an exciting challenge. I think very few of the drivers will have been here, so if we can be on the pace quickly there’s a good chance of a strong qualifying result.