...during the Asian Festival of Speed event on the Sepang F1 circuit yesterday. The team is composed of two previous Meritus Formula BMW Asia champions with New Zealander Earl Bamber joining his team mate James Chaiwat for the first time in the 375bhp Formula V6 Asia cars. James grabbed pole position from the Indian GP2 and Team QI-Meritus finished second and third in Round 1 and first and third in Round 2. While Earl Bamber leads the drivers points, James Chaiwat is only a few points behind in second position, and the team itself is leading the team championship.
The AFOS-organised Formula V6 Asia is entering its third season as the premier formula championship in Asia. In 2006 the championship was won by Karun Chandrok who has gone on to win races in GP2 in Europe as well as being a top contender in GP2 Asia. While the Meritus 2007 champion James Winslow has tested in Indycar, he finally opted for a ride with A1GP Great Britain. The FV6 series has however proved itself as a stepping stone to higher championships in Europe and the USA, with Meritus’ 2006 runner up Matt Halliday competing in the Champcar series.
The 2008 championship has a very respectable 12 car entry with the top formula teams in Asia competing. The series visits Malaysia in May and supports the Super GTs again on the Sepang F1 circuit in June, followed by a visit to the GP2 circuit in Sentul before visiting the Chengdu circuit in China. The penultimate event of the series will support the World Touring Car Championship in Autopolis before wrapping up on the Shanghai F1 circuit – the home of the Chinese Grand Prix. The series is televised and screened on ESPN Star Sport and ESPN Sport Trans Asia as well as a host of regional terrestrial and satellite networks in the Middle East and Asia. During the 2007 season Meritus sponsors generated valuable TV coverage through the excellent TV production organised by MAL.
The AFOS event, held from 15-18 May on the Sepang F1 circuit started with some concerns for Team QI-Meritus operation as the team’s engines only arrived back from Europe late on Tuesday. Unfortunately the drivers were therefore unable to take part in the two days official testing. However free practice on Saturday morning showed that Bamber and Chiwat had good cars and were on the pace.
Says Chiwat: “I was not worried too much about losing the two official test days as the team had organised testing for me before shipping the engines to Europe, as there was always the possibility that the engines would be delayed on their return. The team worked very hard in order to prepare the car but there was a software problem and the gearbox programme would not allow the gears to change. For Saturday morning free practice the car felt fantastic and with a few minor changes my times were at the top of the sheet for the second practice and I was confident for qualifying.”
James went on to say: “Qualifying went exactly according to plan. I did four laps in the first session which qualified me to take part in the second period. We made some final adjustments to the car and the changes gave me greater confidence and I put in a quick time and was sure I could stay ahead of Armaan. It was a fantastic feeling to be on pole for my first Formula V6 Asia race.”
Says Earl Bamber: “Yep, the early part of the week really went according to plan as the team had advised me there would be delays which meant we would miss the official testing. Like my team mate I had limited track time on Saturday morning. Some of the changes I needed took longer than planned so I had to forego qualifying and started from the pit lane Bamber goes on to say: “Starting from the pit lane behind my team mate was not the best position for the driver or team to start the new season but with the delays with the engines and the on-going electronic problems, this sometimes unfortunately happens. When we got permission to leave the pit lane, James had forgotten to switch off the pit lane speed limiter and I nearly bumped into the back of him. But this gave me the advantage and I led James in the chase after the lead pack. It was good that the race was a 20-lapper as it allowed us to overtake and one by one we passed until we caught up with GP2 Asia star, Armaan Ebrahim. We managed to close the gap by 2/10ths a lap however there were not enough laps and I am happy with my P2 for Round 1 of the 2008 championship.”
Team QI-Meritus finished second and third for Round One of the Championship, and the team worked through Saturday night to make final preparations to all the software glitches that they had experienced. The drivers lined up in P2 and P3 grid positions for the feature event of the weekend. While Armaan took off followed closely by Earl Bamber, James did not have his normal great start and Isaac Ro Charlez managed to take an advantage from James. A pace car was called after the second lap and on the run up to the start line one back marker passed James. It took two laps for James to get his position back and after that he closed the gap on Charlez by 3/10ths per lap. When Armaan Ebrahim dropped out due to engine problems that promoted James to third in the race and Earl Bamber went on to lead thirty of the thirty-five laps in his second ever Formula V6 Asia race.
Says Bamber: “It is just fantastic to win my first V6 race as these cars are really serious machines and I hope to use my championship success this year to get a top line drive in Europe or North America for the 2009 season. The team did a fantastic job preparing the car: my engineer has worked 18-hour days to rebuild and prepare the cars for this weekend. I am sure there is a lot more to come from me and the team have promised me an even better car for the next event. It is fantastic that I am leading the championship but I am well aware that James has increased his speed since we last competed against each other in 2006. I am sure that he will take some wins away from me, but I will make it as hard as possible for him!”
Say James: “It has been a difficult week but I always had confidence that the team would give me a great car. I got a pole and two third positions for my first Formula V6 Asia race and I suppose I should be happy, but the team knows that I should have won the first race which would have made a very interesting battle between me and Earl for future events. I have worked hard on my fitness over the winter and I have a lot more confidence in my ability to win this championship. It’s great to be back with Peter Thompson and Meritus who have really helped me develop my ‘race craft’ and prepared me for this championship.
The Meritus team is competing in Asia for its thirteenth year now and has won 27 Asian motorsport titles, including the 2007 driver and team championship in Formula V6 Asia with James Winslow. The team is very proud of the three-year relationship with Earl Bamber and James Chiwat who both started with the team in Formula BMW when they were only 14-years-old. Having won the 2006 Formula BMW Championship, Earl went on to compete in the New Zealand Formula Toyota series as well as Australian F3, while James repeated Formula BMW during 2007, narrowly missing out on the championship title having rolled his car at the last event.
Meritus are utlising the experience gained from their all-new GP2 Asia team and the team’s GP2 Technical Director is now engineering our two junior drivers in Formula V6. The team’s decision to send engines for rebuild caused a lot of delays due to unforeseen circumstances. However in the end once the preparation was completed the drivers had two fault-free cars which ran on the pace during the 55 laps of Rounds 1 and 2.
The team now prepares for the second event of the championship which supports the Japanese GT cars on the Sepang circuit in June.
|