Earlier this week, I came across an announcement regarding an emerging Championship, called the A10 World Series.
But what is the A10 World Series? So far, their site has only one linking element on its front page, which leads to minor details regarding the engine specification. The A10 Series is to be a new single seater formula, powered by 600 BHP V10 engines, at this point ruling out any links to the Ferrari engines that piloted the A1GP Series. The link also has an audio file of the engine too.
The only V10 engines (I know of) that are in active competition at the moment are the 5.5-litre Audi and Judd motors that currently contest the LMP1 Series; however with the amount of concentration that Audi place on sportscar racing, it is questionable if they would wish to expand to an unknown series, such as this. On the other hand, Audi’s sister company, Lamborghini, produced a nifty 5.2-litre V10 engine for their road cars several years ago – an engine that shared many of Audi’s technological features at the time. However, Lamborghini have not contested single-seater championships since the early 90’s and has been working very hard in the FIA GT Championship as of late.
Judd, on the other hand, have been producing fairly competent V10 engines for sportscars in recent years, while being involved as an engine supplier rather than a manufacturer. The knowledge and experience the company has may make them a potential favourite to supply the A10 World Series; however whether Judd have the facilities to expand to yet a further championship is an unknown.
As for Formula 1 engine manufacturers, Cosworth did run a restricted 3-litre V10 engine in 2006 with Toro Rosso, but it may be unlikely to foresee their power-plant running in A10 World Series, due to their current obligations to Formula 1. Alternatively, Cosworth’s one-time Formula 1 competitors, BMW, have pulled back many of the motorsport efforts in recent years, leaving them with little motor racing exposure. Even their Formula BMW category has been withdrawn.
Toyota are another possibility. The company’s Formula 1 plans were touted to be sold to ailing Formula 1 squad, HRT all winter; however talks collapsed just before Christmas and it appears that there is no way back. With NASCAR being Toyota’s only racing series at the moment, an entry to the A10 World Series, with an already proven V10 engine (the RV Series) would be a slow re-introduction back into single-seater racing. The Japanese company also have the benefit of their own junior single-seater series based in New Zealand and Australia, called the Toyota Racing Series, meaning a road for development drivers is also rather strong.
No other information regarding chassis or circuits has yet been revealed; however more information is expected to be released daily. Many a Championship have either replaced specification chassis (GP2) or simply collapsed (A1GP* and Champ Car) in recent years, leaving speculation open as to what chassis will be raced.
Basic company details for the Championship reveal that its offices are based in Southampton and that they were registered last October; however direct contact details are still not available.
Another question is where does the A10 World Series position itself? Do the organisers see this as a competitor for Superleague Formula or something that sits alongside it? Following the collapse of A1GP, there has to be a question as to whether another high grade racing series is necessary (assuming, of course, that parts of this may be based in Europe) and right now, it does not take much research to realise that Superleague already struggles for an audience in its grandstands during race weekends. Also, what is A10 World Series to be paired with; does it have support formulae or is it a support for some other Championship? This is also very, very late to be launching a Championship that is supposed to running this year, so when will it be racing (if it is)?
It is very odd that until a few days ago no one had heard of this series, especially when considering its apparent global ambitions. One wonders what will revealed next.
I am going to stick my neck out here. I think it is a racing simulator league, along the lines of iRacing. That is based on absolutely nothing at all, apart from gut feeling.
*The first generation A1GP cars are currently being raced in Auto GP, while the second generation machines are apparently in storage.
I’m looking forward to finding out what this is, and whether it is something to genuinely look forward to or if it is a group of chancers. I agree we don’t need more summer series especially in Europe, but if this does turn out to be ‘New A1GP’ as a winter series in warmer climes in places the usual series don’t visit, I’ll give it a chance.
I can see what they’re doing with the ‘drips of information’ thing too, they way they are doing it just looks a bit… cheap. On the other hand so did the AutoGP site until very recently indeed.
I’ll absolutely wait to see what they launch next, but yes, their site borders on the …. cheap.
The sound clip on that website sounds way more F1 V10 to me than sports car V10, though maybe if one of those Judd V10s were hooked to a tiny flywheel/clutch and put in a car weighing half as much as an LMS car, it’d spin up that quick, too. Maybe it’s the old Renault/Mechachrome V10 from the late-’90s? They were supplying like three teams at one point (Williams/BAR/somebody else?), so they might have had a few dozen of them lying around in some warehouse somewhere.
Anyway, very interesting, but I just have no faith in yet ANOTHER European open wheel series hanging around for more than one season. I thought the open wheel scene over there was already completely oversaturated…
Mechachrome itself could be a stretch, but I wouldn’t put it beyond the possibility of a company buying the licence for a V10 engine specification and doing a large scale manufacture.
I still have not seen this series listed on any circuits or as a support to any championship, so a winter series or even a 2012 start-up is possible.
Does Europe need yet another single-seater championship? I really don’t think so.