About A1GPgrid

Welcome to the first independent website, founded in July 2004, dedicated to the unique motor racing series A1 Grand Prix. This was the first opportunity for nations to compete head to head exclusively on a truly level playing field in “The World Cup of Motorsport”.

A1 Grand Prix, later re-branded as A1GP, was launched in the summer of 2004 on an unsuspecting public. After the founder, His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum [image above], officially launched the series in London it was followed by a series of national team launches around the world taking in 80% of the world’s population. A1GP was more than just another motorsport phenomenon, it was an entirely new sport “The World Cup of Motorsport”. It pitted driver against driver and country against country for the first time in history, A1GP brought together many nations, from traditional motorsport nations like Great Britain and USA to non traditional nations like Lebanon and Korea, to actively compete on a level playing field under the nations flag “for the pride of your nation”.

A1podium.com was started after I read a story online about a new motorsport series called A1 Grand Prix. Although new series start all the time this one intrigued me and I could see straight away it would be a success so I dropped my F1podium website [boring] and started this one to cover the series.

In the first year there was not very much to report, as the new car was tested and refined, prior to the first race at Brands Hatch, UK, [image left] but this soon changed as the A1Teams were announced as more and more signed up to compete.

Nations as diverse as Austria, Russia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Brasil were announced, then more joined leading up to the first test session at Silverstone, UK, where the teams got their first chance to check out the new car. But as new Nations were still joining A1GP added another test session at Paul Ricard, France, where they introduced a test of the Sprint race ‘Rolling’ start procedure.

By the first ever race at Brands Hatch in front of a capacity crowd we had an expanded website with lots of news coming in on a regular basis and excitement was rising in the motorsport fans. A1GP got off to a flying start.

As the years passed we increased the coverage and content. In the second season we started a search for A1GP fans who could act as reporters/photographers at each round of the series around the world. So that fans could get a motorsport fans view from inside the circuit not just ‘bland’ official press releases. The A1Reporters feature grew in the third season with us covering half the races and was proving very popular.

Then at the end of season three [2008] A1podium, having being media [race track] accredited from the beginning, was informed by A1GP that new rules were being implemented for future [race track] accreditation which left us ‘out in the cold’ and having to shelve the A1Reporters and other new features we had in the pipe-line.

The key part of the new rules was ‘ongoing coverage of the series alongside other national and international motorsport events‘.

This clause was impossible to comply with as we were Exclusively A1GP. I was told that they had a huge interest following Ferrari joining A1GP and therefore had decided the limited media [race track] spaces would go to media that could bring new fans to A1GP rather than those who were catering to A1GP fans.

For a while I could not see how we could overcome this set back. But then I decided to continue and find new ways of keeping the oldest and best [our users opinions] independent A1GP website alive and ahead of the competition.

At this time I made the decision to move home from A1podium.com to GPgrid.com which would give us more flexibility, if needed, to cover other series.

For Season 4, the new powered by Ferrari season, we completely revamped the website with a new website engine to give a better experience for our readers.

Then following the Taupo [NZL] weekend we received a communication from A1GP telling us that we were no longer being listed as a media accredited organization. So once again we received a set back but this time I never thought twice about keeping the site going.

During the previous year we had received a number of complaints from A1GP staff about features we had added here and I can only assume that we were doing too good a job, compared to their official website, as they never gave us a valid reason for dropping us.

We will continue to offer the best website experience we can, we are committed to the sport of A1GP, subject to what further obstacles may be put in our way.

Financial problems finally overtook the series at the end of season four and slowly the series we had grown to love slowly died under the weight of legal problems [$million's of debt]. Then at the end of 2009 the official website, already a dead space, died leaving just A1.GPgrid.com as the only website keeping the A1fans up to date with all the latest news.

Now into 2010 we are all awaiting the result of a sale of the series on behalf of the creditors. All A1fans hope it goes through and the series we love will return to the track.

We are Green!

Some of you may have noticed the boast in the footer on our front page that all our websites are Carbon Free Wind Powered. This is actually our Webhost Hostgator.

Did you know that the average server produces the same emissions as a 15 mpg SUV?
HostGator hosts over 2,200,000 websites on its web hosting servers.
That means a lot of servers, and a lot of carbon emissions.
So they asked themselves, What can they do to be part of the climate change solution?
They took steps to minimize their environmental impact at the office, but still they weren’t satisfied.
They then switched to 36% more efficient servers, but still they weren’t satisfied!
All of their servers are now 130% wind powered!
That’s right! 130%!
They are not just neutralizing their environmental impact, they are reversing it!
HostGator has purchased certified Renewable Energy Credits representing 130% of the electricity used to both power and cool every last one of their servers!

Just how big a dent in climate change does that make?
It’s the equivalent of:

1.  Removing 444 cars from the road for a year, or
2.  Powering 321 homes with clean energy for a year, or
3.  Saving 5,654 barrels of oil, or
4.  Protecting 551 acres of forest for a year

Investing in wind power close to home!
All of HostGator’s wind credits are generated in their home state of Texas!
While they can’t build a wind farm in downtown Houston, they are doing the next best thing and investing in renewable energy close to home!

Green-e Certified RECs
All of HostGators REC’s have been registered, verified, and retired from the market.

Martin – Editor A1GPgrid