New A1 GP is Ferrari look alike

A1GP appears to be sticking to its promise that its new ‘Powered by Ferrari’ chassis will resemble the car Michael Schumacher used to win the 2004 Formula 1 World Championship.

The first image of the new Ferrari-engined single-seater, which will come on stream for this winter’s A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, clearly follows the styling of the F2004.

Officially, the new car is based on the Ferrari F1 car. In reality, it is a lookalike: the needs of a one-make series and the use of an engine derived from the 430 supercar’s V8 dictate that.

The second-generation A1GP chassis is being designed by John Travis, who was previously responsible for Champ Cars at Lola and Penske and most recently the Epsilon-Euskadi Le Mans prototype. Rory Byrne, who headed up the design team on all of Schumacher’s title-winning Ferraris, is a project consultant.

As Motor Sport went to press the car was scheduled to run for the first time in the hands of former Grand Prix contestant John Watson, who is now part of the A1GP commentary team.

A1GP boss Tony Texeira said he was ”happy with the progress made so far” and ”pleased to say we are on schedule”.

The design and build of the car is being undertaken at premises in Bognor Regis in West Sussex. Only the engines will be made by Ferrari.

A date for the car’s official launch has yet to be set.