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October 04, 2000
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The GPVWC Press has caught up with Dan Lawrence, GPVWC Administrator. The start of the 2000 season has been a successful one, but what will be the outlook on the future? Only the man who runs the show can tell us.
Q: What is the state of the championship after its future was threatened recently?
A: It is looking very healthy at the moment, as there are more people helping behind the scenes to make it better, and drivers also seem to be much happier about the schedule. As a management team we are beginning to gel with the creation of the new website and with various ideas being suggested for 2001.
Q: You promised a new website some time ago - when will this be finished?
A: The new web site will be open shortly. We're currently working mostly on graphics, making the site look as good as possible. We are going to have the GPVWC Trophy and that's something no other championship on the Internet has. There are also going to be trophies awarded after every race to the first three drivers and the winning team. (We will not be awarding 'real' trophies!!!)
Q: Rumours suggest that the recent Monza testing session was pointless and should not continue as it is, are you going to change it?
A: Yes. The initial aim of the test session was to provide new drivers with a way of showing their speed to team managers with a view of driving in this league next season. The interest we had initially suggested it would be quite helpful. The only reason I can really put down to the low turnout was the closeness of it to the Japan race. However, there were a few drivers not involved in the championship who didn't test so there were other reasons also. In the future we've introduced a more meaningful approach to testing as the session will now be held at the track a week in advance of the next race. So, the next session will be held at Spa a week before the race, but it will only be available for the test drivers, and its format will a 50% distance race. Instead of qualifying we will assign a ranking to each test driver and this will be their starting position in the race. This will effectively create a second championship, although there are no plans to award points for it, so drivers will just be racing for position and to get good setups for the actual championship race. We will be monitoring this very closely as we hope to introduce a CART championship in the 2001 season for drivers who aren't in the F1 championship. This is just a possibility at the moment but we hope current test drivers participate in the test sessions to show there is a need for a feeder league, and we encourage all team managers to find a test driver to race in this.
Q: Are there any details you can share about 2001 yet?
A: We have included discussions about what we want next season quite regularly, both as management and with the competitors. It is clear that we will have 17 races, all 100% distance, and at the same time as the FIA calendar. In addition, we are creating a proper simulation of F1 as best we can, this means we will give team managers more decisions to make, drivers more motivation as they try to get to the top teams. And as I've mentioned, we are hoping for two championships - F1 and CART. We will open registration for the 2001 season in a few weeks time.
Q: What is the state of the championship after its future was threatened recently?
A: It is looking very healthy at the moment, as there are more people helping behind the scenes to make it better, and drivers also seem to be much happier about the schedule. As a management team we are beginning to gel with the creation of the new website and with various ideas being suggested for 2001.
Q: You promised a new website some time ago - when will this be finished?
A: The new web site will be open shortly. We're currently working mostly on graphics, making the site look as good as possible. We are going to have the GPVWC Trophy and that's something no other championship on the Internet has. There are also going to be trophies awarded after every race to the first three drivers and the winning team. (We will not be awarding 'real' trophies!!!)
Q: Rumours suggest that the recent Monza testing session was pointless and should not continue as it is, are you going to change it?
A: Yes. The initial aim of the test session was to provide new drivers with a way of showing their speed to team managers with a view of driving in this league next season. The interest we had initially suggested it would be quite helpful. The only reason I can really put down to the low turnout was the closeness of it to the Japan race. However, there were a few drivers not involved in the championship who didn't test so there were other reasons also. In the future we've introduced a more meaningful approach to testing as the session will now be held at the track a week in advance of the next race. So, the next session will be held at Spa a week before the race, but it will only be available for the test drivers, and its format will a 50% distance race. Instead of qualifying we will assign a ranking to each test driver and this will be their starting position in the race. This will effectively create a second championship, although there are no plans to award points for it, so drivers will just be racing for position and to get good setups for the actual championship race. We will be monitoring this very closely as we hope to introduce a CART championship in the 2001 season for drivers who aren't in the F1 championship. This is just a possibility at the moment but we hope current test drivers participate in the test sessions to show there is a need for a feeder league, and we encourage all team managers to find a test driver to race in this.
Q: Are there any details you can share about 2001 yet?
A: We have included discussions about what we want next season quite regularly, both as management and with the competitors. It is clear that we will have 17 races, all 100% distance, and at the same time as the FIA calendar. In addition, we are creating a proper simulation of F1 as best we can, this means we will give team managers more decisions to make, drivers more motivation as they try to get to the top teams. And as I've mentioned, we are hoping for two championships - F1 and CART. We will open registration for the 2001 season in a few weeks time.
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