Youtube Documentary: The ambitious idea and ultimate failure of A1GP

At the beginning of this century, a Sheikh from Dubai created a new racing class that not only had the ambition, but in principle the potential, to compete with Formula 1 as the most popular racing class in the future. After only a few years, however, this dream already shattered.

The A1GP was a race class for country teams and anyone who compares it to football, for example, knows that competitions in which nations compete against each other are almost always a guarantee for publicity and success.

Initially, this also seemed to be the case for the A1GP. The class attracted participants from all over the world and was also broadcast in most countries. However, the so-called 'World Cup of Motorsport' soon ran into problems that are inherent to the sport in many ways.

Running a race team simply requires a lot of money and knowledge, even if one doesn't have to develop the cars oneself. This meant that the drivers were all in possession of a passport from the country they represented, but the teams behind them in most cases not at all.

The fact that all drivers came from almost 30 different countries also revealed another problem. The world of international motorsport turned out to be a Western affair and the difference in level with drivers from countries like Lebanon and Pakistan was therefore very large. Something that occasionally resulted in hilarious scenes.

How the story of the A1GP ended exactly is explained in this video by MotoMeerkat.