The programme is headed by sports car driver David Brabham (son of three-times World Champion Jack Brabham) and aims to develop drivers with the skills they need to progress throughout their careers,  such as physical training, mind coaching, career management, sponsorship generation, promotion and media presentation.

A second tier to the programme was added for 2008 and the MSA British Race Academy give six other drivers access to similar facilities but whom are at earlier stages of their careers (this arguably, is more appropriate to me). The chosen Academy drivers were Jack Clarke (finishing 4th in Formula Palmer Audi), James Cole (finishing 10th in British Formula Ford),  Ollie Millroy (finishing 21st in Formula BMW Europe) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (finishing 13th in Formula BMW Europe).

In the name of transparency, I thought this year that I would post my MSA British Race Elite application online (well in advance of the 28/02 deadline).

I would like to think my application will be considered with optimism. In 2008, I didn’t really have much of a confirmed racing calendar, however this year is different. What’s more, I’d like to think that there are not many drivers applying who have won a national single seater championship, been Autosport Number 1 Club Driver of the Year and were part of major university’s Sports Bursary scheme for three years.

The Application

Personal Information

Name, Date of Birth, MSA License Number.

Statistics

Height: 179cm
Weight: 68kg
Do you smoke? No
Do you drink? No

Achievements

Academic Qualifications

University of Essex (2005-2008)
BSc Computer Science (First class)
2005, 2006 and 2007 University of Essex Sports Bursary Student

Colchester Institute (2003-2005)
BTEC National Diploma IT Practitioner

Gilberd School, Colchester (1998-2003)
GCSEs ommitted.

Racing Achievements

2007 Autosport Number One Club Driver of the Year
2007 UK Formula Vee Champion:

Formula Ford 1600 Festival:

Teams Driven For

• UK Formula Vee: AHS, GAC and Mark Dunham Racing
• British Formula Ford: Remita Racing
• Porsche 996 GT3 (Testing): Team Park Racing / Quaife / Racecar Engineering
• Formula Palmer Audi

Committed 2009 racing programme

• National Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Midland South Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Trophy Events:
  • BRDC Golden Helmet (Knockhill)
  • Castle Combe Carnival
  • Formula Ford 1600 Festival
  • Walter Hayes Trophy

Your Ambitions

I believe I have demonstrated my potential and I am keen now to prove myself against other talented drivers in more high profile series. I am sure that given the opportunity I could win at the highest level in single-seaters, touring cars or sports cars. In addition to this, I believe I work harder than any of young racing driver in the country both in order to fund my racing and in preparing myself physically for the year ahead.

Formula Vee has spawned champions at the highest levels before and I have prepared an appendix demonstrating how competitive Vee really is today. The data also demonstrates how successful I was in 2007 and why I believe I deserve the opportunity to take part in the MSA Race Elite scheme.

Related posts:

1. MSA announces new addition to its elite programme
2. 2009 Dunlop Race Academy – Good News for British Motorsport
3. Racing Steps Foundation: 2008 season review

Going into this weekend I had no circuit knowledge. Having elected to skip the Oulton Park round last year, an afternoon of testing on Friday had only two objectives: learn the circuit and refine a setup.

A broken head stud was the result of a single installation lap in the first of two sessions. Later, during the second session, the oil cooler was ruptured by a stone and a rocker gasket began to leak, ending what was a very difficult day in which I managed just half a dozen laps of the picturesque circuit.

On Friday evening we reappraised our situation. I had come to Oulton Park with the clear intention of winning. I wanted my fourth straight pole position and I wanted to make up for the mistake last time out at Silverstone. However, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. I still did not know the circuit well and with only a handful of laps, we approached making changes to our setup with some trepidation.

As far as I was concerned, the objectives had changed. Martin Farmer, last years Oulton Park winner and my only championship threat, was clearly fastest on Friday with the new 2008-spec GAC engine. With only ten championship points separating us going into this weekend, I had to focus on damage limitation. For me, we decided, there was nobody else in the race.

During qualifying, I stayed close to Farmer. James Birch put in an early quick lap to take provisional pole position whilst Farmer and I continued to improve our times. The session ended with Farmer improving on the final lap to take pole position. Birch ended up second whilst I was was third.

We were ahead of Farmer up until the final lap and considering the relative lack of circuit knowledge we had, it wasn’t a bad result. The car was also distinctly unpredictable and we later discovered a broken trailing arm. Since lap one of qualifying we were running extreme camber on the right-rear wheel, almost certainly a result of taking the heavy kerbing through one of the two chicanes. All things considered, I was relatively confident.

Lining up on the grid, I still had just one goal in mind: finish ahead of Farmer. For the first time ever, I was ready for big picture racing.

Over the green flag lap I was somewhat concerned with the car. It sounded more “throaty than normal and I concluded it was probably a small piece of dirt in the carburettor. What’s worse, the oil light had come on as I took my grid space.

I had an average get away but lost momentum as Hands came across to cover the inside. As I was swamped by many cars, I decided to err on the side of caution early into the turn one. I was down in sixth position but as we swooped through Cascades and down the Lakeside straight for the first time I was not particularly concerned. It was a train of cars: Hands, Farmer, Birch, Jake Oliveira, Sam Oliveira, myself and Ryan Lindsay. It didn’t think it would last and so I sat back for a lap to consider the car.

Over the opening lap the oil light continued to flash. Rationalising that I wouldn’t still be running if I really had an oil pressure problem, I figured it too was a victim of hitting the kerbing hard all weekend.

Exiting Lodge corner for the first time and we began to concertina together. I got alongside Sam up the hill and was past in time to take a somewhat normal line into Old Hall. Hands and Birch were alongside one another at the front, as were Jake and Farmer directly ahead of me.

Jake Oliveira and Farmer continued to run side-by-side down through Cascades and I managed to get to the gearbox of Jake before Farmer had a chance to close the door. Approaching the Shell Oils hairpin this time and I was back into 4th position but most crucially, ahead of Farmer.

I decided to start defending. After all, I did not have to win the race and even if the front three made a break, it didn’t matter to me.

We continued to go wheel to wheel over the next lap, Farmer getting to my outside before Old Hall. He couldn’t make it stick and fell back into line for the run through Cascades. Once again, on the run down Lakeside Straight, Farmer rocketed to my outside before Island Bend. Taking the outside line, he appeared to get on the marbles and he under-steered off the circuit and onto the grass. I could hardly believe my eyes and as I began to brake for the hairpin he was out the sight of my mirrors.

I continued to search my mirrors for any signs of the works GAC. Before we had even reached the Knickerbrook chicane I was confident that if he was still running, he was considerably down the order.

Sam Oliveira was now glued to my gearbox. Having reappraised the situation and still holding reservations about the reliability of my car, I moved over to let him past rather than risk fighting unnecessarily. What’s more, by following him, I would be almost certainly be dragged back to the front while continuing to conserve my own car.

Sam was having his own difficulties and as he went through to my inside at Druids, his car was quite literally on fire. Being a sportsman, he let me back through and I continued to reduce the gap on my own.

Exiting Cascades again and it was now Birch who was to fall by the wayside. Suffering an engine failure, this promoted me back to where I had started in third position.

As I negotiated Island Bend for the third time I could see the stricken car of Farmer in the outside wall. Once again, this changed the dynamics of my race. With a ten point lead originally and a DNF giving Farmer only 1 extra point, I would need to score 18 to take the title, the equivalent of finishing fourth. As I was currently running in third position, I concentrated on keeping consistent and conservative. Ryan Lindsay was keeping me honest and his constant presence in my mirrors gave me little hope of relaxing entirely.

Related posts:

1. Formula Vee: Victory at Mallory Park! (Video)
2. Formula Vee: Pole Position, Fastest Lap and 2nd at Silverstone
3. Formula Vee: Pembrey (Video)

It is first necessary to outline the criteria for the comparisons. Only nations which have scored a World Championship point are eligible. This means wins and podiums can be taken into account but I have explicitly not looked for nations which may have held pole positions or achieved fastest laps yet failed to score any points. This is for practicality’s sake.

I also recognise that the system of awarding points has changed many times over the history of Formula One. Nevertheless, statistics are statistics and considering the majority of points in this era have been scored by just one man (Michael Schumacher, Germany) and that points is just one comparisons, it should even itself out.

So let us get started. This first table shows the total number of World Championship’s won by each nation.

	Nation	World Championships
	Great Britain	11
	Brazil	9
	Germany	7
	Argentina	5
	Austria	4
	Austrailia	4
	France	4
	Finland	3
	Italy	3
	Spain	2
	USA	2
	Canada	1
	New Zealand	1
	South Africa	1

That’s all well and good, but it’s hardly conclusive. Next, we will look at the total number of World Championship points scored by each nation.

	Nation	Total Points
	Great Britain	3818.4
	France	2128.9
	Brazil	2056.5
	Germany	2004
	Italy	1412.5
	Finland	929.5
	Austria	911.5
	USA	640
	Argentina	542.5
	Australia	521
	New Zealand	519.5
	Spain	381
	Canada	335
	Belguim	313
	Columbia	307
	Sweden	294
	Switzerland	277
	South Africa	246
	Mexico	143.2

This provides a little more weight. However, there is the aforementioned problem – over the years the Formula One points system has changed and so it favors drivers in the modern era. Also, points are achieved through consistency and it follows that we look at outright wins.

	Nation	Wins
	Great Britain	186
	Germany	103
	Brazil	90
	France	77
	Austria	41
	Italy	37
	Argentina	36
	Finland	34
	Australia	26
	USA	22
	Canada	17
	Spain	15
	New Zealand	12
	Belguim	11
	South Africa	10
	Sweden	10
	Columbia	7
	Switzerland	7
	Mexico	4

Likewise, a win doesn’t necessarily imply outright speed. The following shows the total number of pole positions.

	Nation	Pole Positions
	Great Britain	168
	Brazil	112
	Germany	77
	France	69
	Austria	46
	Finland	43
	Italy	40
	Argentina	31
	USA	28
	Australia	17
	Canada	15
	Spain	15
	Belguim	14
	Sweden	14
	Columbia	12
	Switzerland	7
	New Zealand	6
	Mexico	3
	South Africa	3

Staying on the subject of outright speed, this shows the total number of fastest laps.

	Nation	Fastest Laps
	Great Britain	170
	Germany	92
	France	80
	Brazil	70
	Austria	48
	Finland	47
	Italy	41
	Argentina	28
	Australia	24
	USA	24
	Switzerland	18
	Canada	17
	Belguim	15
	New Zealand	13
	Columbia	12
	Sweden	9
	Spain	8
	Mexico	5
	South Africa	5

And finally, as a more general measure of success, let us compare the total number of podiums achieved.

	Nation	Podiums
	Great Britain	452
	France	279
	Brazil	249
	Germany	218
	Italy	151
	Austria	115
	Finland	104
	USA	85
	Argentina	80
	New Zealand	71
	Australia	56
	Belguim	40
	Sweden	38
	Spain	37
	Canada	36
	Switzerland	34
	South Africa	33
	Columbia	30
	Mexico	22

Now, to bring some kind of conclusion and amalgamate all of the separate comparisons into one I have weighted each nations position in each of the above tables by awarding a score from 19 to 1 (there are 19 points scoring nations). This, therefore, gives us the final positions.

		Nation
1.		Great Britain
2.		Brazil
3.		Germany
4.		France
5.		Austria
6.		Italy
7.		Argentina
8.		Finland
9.		USA
10.		Australia
11.		Canada
12.		Spain
13.		New Zealand
14.		Belgium
15.		Sweden
16.		Switzerland
17.		Columbia
18.		South Africa
19.		Mexico

So there you have it – Rule Britannia! In each comparison made, statistically, Great Britain has been most successful. It is then followed closely by Brazil, Germany and France. Some nations, such as Germany, are largely being carried by the statistics of one driver (Schumacher). Some, like Argentina, haven’t won a World Championship since 1957 (Fangio) and have only ever had two Grand Prix participants (Fangio and Reutemann). Others, Great Britain, for example, have an even distribution amongst eight world champions and 15 points scoring drivers.

Isn’t it interesting that people always refer to Scandinavians or South Americans as being the most naturally gifted drivers when statistically they are eclipsed by the British? Why is it so often overlooked?

Also worth noting is that no Asian or Middle Eastern nation has ever scored a World Championship point. I anticipate that this will change during the next decade.

And so to conclude, I thought I would preempt the criticisms that I expect. Yes, this isn’t perfect but it does illustrate some interesting points. Motorsport is unfair and especially in Formula One, drivers never have the opportunity to compete in equal equipment. Does that make drawing comparisons irrelevant? Probably not, but it does demonstrate the need for A1GP to control the technology in its own series.

You could also argue that the success of a nation’s motorsport should include construction too. Perhaps, but overall, I would not expect the outcome to be significantly different.

And what about GNP? Isn’t Great Britain’s dominance proportional to the socio-economic opportunities within our country and just another example of the unfortunate economics of motor sport? Again, perhaps. However, the same applies to the motorsport heritage in smaller nations – Brazil or Argentina, for example. Senna, Piquet and Barrichello were all born into large amounts of money.

In some ways I wish the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport was based on Formula One. That way, at least we would have won something.…

If you would like to validate my statistics, feel free. I have provided the script used to generate them here.

Related posts:

1. How is A1GP really doing?
2. Formula Three’s biggest threat
3. How much travelling is in your motorsport season?