The AFR championship is returning to Shanghai International Circuit (SIC) this weekend with its very first points race of the 09 season (May 23 rd & 24 th ). The starting grid will feature drivers from Asia Racing Team (ART), Champ Motorsport, March 3 (M3), PTRS racing team, Pena Motorsport and FRD racing team.
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The performance of young drivers is one of the major focuses for this weekend: Shanqi Zhang (PTRS), Zhiqiang Zhang (M3), Alon Day (M3) & the only female driver, Samin Gomez Briceno (M3), Suriya (M3), Luis Jorge (M3) & Rio Haryanto (ART), Shohei Shiromoto (Pena Motorsport) as well as Spanish driver Guille Marti (Champ Motorsport), are all teenage drivers from Asia and Europe. They represent the young single-seater drivers' competitive capacity of their regions. Having them on the grid signifies another step towards the increasing international flavor of the Championship, and will surely draw attention from not only Asia but also the rest of the world. Other than these young drivers, the race will also feature several familiar names on the grid such as 2008 AFR champion Jim Kato (Champ Motorsport) and former A1 driver Tengyi Jiang (FRD Racing team).
This time, team ART features five drivers on the list, several of which are podium contenders. Philippe Descombes, the team manager of ART, indicated that the AFR championship is a good stepping stone for young drivers who hope to reach higher/top level single-seater competition in the near future: ¡°I would like to see more young drivers competing in this championship, especially more young drivers from the region.¡± Being an experienced formula driver himself, Philippe likes to give young drivers the advice that it is vital to work closely with their engineers and try to finish races.
Pekka Saarinen, the 2006/7 AFR champion/team manager of Champ Motorsport, said ¡±We are bringing more young drivers from Europe and it's a good start this time. I want my drivers to bring their top form. Young drivers are allowed to make some small mistakes in the race, so it is more important for them to show their desire for a faster laptime than being a careful driver. It's not only for the team and sponsors to see, but it's also a good opportunity for them to show their capability.¡± Saarinen also indicated that he would like to see the championship go to more circuits in Asia in the future.
Team March 3's two leading drivers, Alon Day and Zhiqiang Zhang, did an impressive job in the AFR season opener exhibition race at Zhuhai circuit and good performance is expected from them. M3 is also bringing the only female driver of the race, 17 year old Samin Gomez Briceno (Venezuelan), sure to be another focus of the weekend. M3's team manager Davide said ¡±We are a team based in China and also perform here. We take young drivers' development very seriously. The AFR championship is a very good race series in China and greater Asia and we are glad to come back to the championship this year. I hope that more young drivers, especially Chinese drivers, will join AFR in the future.¡±
The Belgian team-manager of the FRD Racing team, Maarten De Busser, said ¡±The championship is a good platform for young drivers to gain more race experience. Compared to other single-seater races of the same level in the region, the AFR championship delivers high quality at a very competitive price and it is exactly what most of the young European drivers are looking for. I have two very competitive drivers this time: Tengyi has a good chance to go to the podium again and Pete Olson has impressive experience and good speed, but has not raced in China for years. It will be a good opportunity for him to get back in his best competitive state.¡±
Paul Hui the AFR Program Director said:¡± It is absolutely a pleasure and great encouragement for me to work with the teams and the team managers this year after a very difficult year in 2008. We are all working hard to make the series a better platform for everyone and with this same desire in mind, I am very very optimistic that we can achieve the goal of continuous improvement of the series. I will stick to my game plan of making improvements to commercial issues and sport equality issues in a gradual manner. At the same time, I am already start working on the 2010 series such as the drafting of the schedule. I want to making sure, for 2010, we create an environment so all the teams are in a position to make progress and achieve the goals that they set out for themselves rather than working in a defensive mode. And I want to make one thing clear, all the resolutions to these issues will be done with the input from the team managers who I consider as my partners in this program.¡±
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