Robbie Kerr's A1 GP diary
Read Robbie's latest entry from Durban, South Africa in the A1 Grand Prix.
Watch the South African A1 Grand Prix live on Sky Sports
12pm, Saturday, Sky Sports 3
11am, Sunday, Sky Sports 1
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For the remainder of the A1 Grand Prix season, Great Britain driver Robbie Kerr will write a diary on skysports.com giving you a unique insight into the racing life on a motor sports driver.
This weekend, after a Christmas break and the cancellation of the Indonesian Grand Prix in the wake of the sad death of Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the founder of A1 Grand Prix, the action gets back underway in South Africa.
Robbie had landed and after a brief welcome by some sharks he is down at the track and raring to go... Read his diary here on skysports.com throughout the weekend.
Sunday Janaury 29
Up again at 8am and the usual breakfast - nothing too heavy. A cereal's always a good choice. Then a walk to the track and get changed into race overalls for the photoshoot at 9.30. For every race A1 takes a picture of all the drivers at the event on the morning of race day. It's a good chance to chat to the others and always quite interesting to see who's forgotten and has to be chased up.
Warm up was at 10am. It's just 15 minutes in the car and I didn't get a flying lap in with doing short runs to sort bits and pieces out but that was fine. Usually we have an autograph session but because of the layout we couldn't do that today.
It was time for more preparations, getting my helmet and drinks ready, that kind of thing. Pasta arrived at 11.30. My regular order is pasta, tomato sauce and with a bit of ham or chicken on the side. Just after noon all the drivers assembled for the drivers parade and we were told what we had to do. It was a great carnival type of parade with really colourful floats and music and dancers. We all get presented to the crowd one by one at the end. Then into race mode.
I'd got ready and in the car when we were told the race was delayed because the crowd had become a little overenthusiastic and were on the fence surrounding the track, so I got back out again. Half an hour later we were going again and I took the car to the grid. There's the usual press interviews there and photographers and guests. Then it's time for the grid to clear and it's just me and a mechanic with the battery. He goes and it's time for a lap before the rolling start of the thirty minute race.
I lost out to Jos at the first corner but then picked up the place again pretty quickly. It was going well until I ran wide at turn nine and I lost two places and was running fourth. The crowd were amazing. There turned out to be just over 100,000 people there.
It was pretty sensible stuff after that until the last couple of laps. Tenji spun in the China car and Tomas in the Czech car picked up some debris and got a puncture so that moved me up a place to third. Jos then took it upon himself to challenge France for the lead but basically clipped Alex Premat and Jos ended up spinning. I just avoided him but it was close and so I was back into second. I caught France quickly and was challenging for the lead - only two tenths of a second behind as I crossed the line. Another lap and I could have been crossing in first. Second's good but a win would have been better.
From Parc Ferme I was taken with Alex and Neel [Jani] for the TV interview and then the podium. There's not much time so it was straight from there to talk to the engineers about changes to the car and back in to do it again for the feature race.
This time it's a standing start. Neel got an absolute flying start into the lead from third in the Swiss car with France and then me. A safety car was called so France and Switzerland pitted. I was called in the following lap and it was downhill from there really. An error in when to release me from the stop meant that I caught a wheel gun and airline which was then dragging under the car. I would have been black flagged if I'd continued so I had to pit. They took out the gun which had got stuck under the car. Unfortunately it had caused some damage so when I braked for a corner I went into a spin, stalled and so that was the end of the race. Very frustrating and a race to forget.
After I got back to the garage I watched the end of the race and then did all the interviews with the media and gave my quote for the team press release. One consolation is that we gained points on Brazil over the weekend so in terms of taking third in the Series we're looking good. Hopefully Indonesia in two weeks will be a different story and we'll have two strong finishes.
I'm going to head back to the hotel after I've got everything packed up and have some dinner and look forward to a lie in tomorrow. We don't fly back until the afternoon so I can have a leisurely morning packing and getting sorted for the flight.
Saturday January 28
Another 8am breakfast and a walk to the circuit. The weather's improved and it turned out to be a good dry day. It more or less meant starting from scratch after our set-up work yesterday was all for wet conditions. It was another opportunity to talk to people at the track, friends from other teams and A1 Grand Prix before going with Will, the Team Manager to the Manager and Driver briefing with John Wickham who runs things from a technical point of view. It covers things like driving standards and track conditions and basically what they want us to do in various circumstances.
From there it was final preparations for getting in the car before the practice. It was cut short by a few laps which would have helped us. It was a bit rushed with the session having over-run so meeting the engineers was first, pasta again for lunch and there should have been an autograph session but it was cancelled at the last minute because of the session over-run and it being tight on time. Then a television interview with Lee which you might have seen on the Sky programme before getting in the car for qualifying.
It went well for us and I'm pleased with second. I'm always looking for more and look at where I could have gone a little bit faster but it's a balance - particularly here where you're getting close to the concrete walls which are very unforgiving. My last session was lost basically because of the red flags but I'd had two clear runs on my two new sets of tyres and it was pleasing to be the only driver other than France to break in the one minute 18 second times.
It's my best qualifying result and the first time I've been in the top three for qualifying which meant getting out of the car and going to do the TV interview in a little room that gets broadcast round the world. From there Alex Premat, Neel Jani and myself were taken by shuttle to the media centre for the press conference where we talked to the journalists that are here.
From there it was back to the garage to debrief with the engineers followed by a TV interview for the Video News Release that the team has done to send out to TV stations for their news programmes. After a chat with a journalist that's here for the Financial Times I walked back to the hotel and got washed and changed for dinner with John Surtees. A very sensible grilled chicken and vegetables! I met up with Sean McIntosh from the Canadian team and Khalil and some of the Lebanese team so spent a bit of time with them before an early night in preparation for race day. All in all a pretty quiet but productive day.
Friday January 27
The real action starts today. Breakfast was at 8am before catching a shuttle bus to the track. Then it was the usual preparations - getting all my race gear ready - preparing my helmet, that kind of thing. We have to go to scrutineering wearing full race gear to be weighed and then have more meetings with engineers about car set-up and what we're going to be doing during the test sessions.
I just had time to grab some pasta before all drivers went round the track in a bus with the race director as part of briefing us on the track and what he expects in terms of our driving and the procedures. An hour later we were on the track for first practice. We had a new engine in the car so we go through an installation process which means one lap, come in, another three laps and comeback in. Then we could get on with the set-up testing. We start off with a best estimate of set-up and refine it as we test.
After getting out of the car after the hour it was more meetings with the engineers to come up with the set-up that we wanted to start session two with. I did some filming for the video news release that we send out to the news stations and then it was back in the car for Official Practice 2. All day it was a case of keeping up with fluid intake as well. I make up a special drink that helps with rehydration but can get through quite a few litres a day in humid conditions like this.
Another meeting with the engineers followed and as well as the usual set-up we were talking about the weather situation. It rained today but the forecast is for dry. There were more interviews with media and then a seat fitting. Basically I have to sit in the car and foam is poured into a plastic bag and moulded to my body shape. It sets hard and then is refined to make a perfect fit. It made it quite late getting back to the hotel so it was another night of room service and straight to bed.
Thursday January 26
Hi Sky.com surfers
It's good to know that there are people back in Britain following the team's progress. I'll keep you up-to-date with what we get up to over the weekend so hopefully you'll get a feeling for what it's like as a driver out of the car. I'll give you a day-by-day diary - here's what happened from leaving England.
I left England on Tuesday - caught a flight from Heathrow and travelled with John Surtees, Sean from A1 Team Canada and Jakob, the team photographer. I had some food, watched a movie - Four Brothers' and got a bit of sleep.
It was very hot when we arrived. We just had time to check in, have a quick wash and change before leaving for a PR event. I managed time to take in the view though. I've got the top floor and stunning views of the Indian Ocean. We were collected and driven to Ushaka Marine World for a PR diving event.
There were about six of us staying at the same hotel so we had a good catch-up on the way. Basil Shabaan and Khalil Bashir from Team Lebanon are always good entertainment! We had a safety briefing then we got into the tank in groups of four. Sean was one of the first lot in, so I went in the second session with Jeroen from the Netherlands team so I knew what to expect.
We put on surface breathing equipment, walked down steps to bottom of tank and walked about on the floor for 5-10 minutes surrounded by small sharks, rays and large tuna. I really enjoyed it and it was a bit of an adrenaline rush having sharks swimming past. It's made me want to give scuba diving a go
All of that was filmed and photographed so if you have a look on the race coverage on Sky over the weekend you might see. Then back to the hotel to pick up the hire car and drive to the track for a walk round with Sean to get to know it.
The circuit looks as though it'll be quick but difficult to overtake. There is a good mixture of corners but with all the work that has gone on to make the circuit it will be very dirty to start with. Once cars start driving round they'll clean off the dirt and leave rubber on the track which gives more grip but until then it'll be a bit slippery.
After that it was back to the hotel, a chat with Sean and John over dinner and to bed. Quite a long day!
