Each A1 Grand Prix team represented a nation. Drivers must have the same nationality as the team they drove for. The team car should also represent the country. The team owner, principal and crew, however, did not need to have the same nationality as the team.
Twenty-nine nations started one race in A1GP
A1 Grands Prix of Nations took place over a three-day period, from Friday to Sunday. A two-hour qualifying session took place on Saturday afternoon, and two races took place on Sunday. The driver selected for qualifying or for one of the races was required to have taken part in at least one practice session.
A1 Grand Prix qualifying determined the grid lineup for Sunday's races, the Sprint Race and the Main Race. The grid for the Sprint Race was set based on the cars' fastest time from either the first or the second session. The grid for the Feature Race was based on sessions three and four.
The Sprint Race was held in the early afternoon. The race began from a rolling start, and it was a maximum of 24 minutes plus one additional lap.<ref name="New 08/09 Rules"></ref> Each team had to make one mandatory pit stop.
The Feature Race was held mid-afternoon. The race began from a standing start, and was approximately 180 kilometres. The maximum time limit of 69 minutes plus one lap. Teams had to make two mandatory pit stops during the Feature Race.
During the pit stop, all four tires on the car had to be changed. Fuel was not allowed to be added to the car.
Drivers did not score points for themselves. The points earned went their national team. Teams could change drivers between rounds and still accumulate points to their score.
Points and cash prizes were awarded for the first ten places. In addition, one point was awarded to the team that set the fastest single lap time in either the Sprint or Main Race.
The A1GP formula provided a single "spec" car for each team. Each car was mechanically identical. It was designed to limit performance, reduce running costs, and prevent any one or number of teams gaining an advantage through better equipment. This provided field in which driver skill and team effort should become the primary factor for success.
The cars were based on the Formula One Ferrari F2004 chassis. They used slick tyres from Michelin. The 4.5-litre Ferrari/Maserati V8 engine produced up to in "PowerBoost" mode.
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia is the title of a series of video games and a movie that follow the adventures of a Persian Prince. They were created by Jordan Menchner. Prince of Persia has been developed and published by several different companies. Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, were developed by Brøderbund. Later Ubisoft took over creating the development starting with the series Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The game platform has developed over the years from 2D animations to 3D worlds. The movie "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" was released by Disney in 2010.
Adelaide Football Club
The Adelaide Football Club, the Crows, is an Australian Rules Football team in the Australian Football League (AFL) based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club was formed by the South Australian National Football League as a joint team to represent South Australia in the AFL. The Crows played their first game on March 22 1991, against the Hawthorn Football Club which they won 155 to 69, in front of a crowd of 44,902 people. Since 2014, its home ground is the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, which it shares with the Port Adelaide Football Club. Before that, they played at AAMI Stadium. The Crows have won two AFL Premierships, in 1997 against St Kilda Football Club, and in 1998 against the North Melbourne Football Club.
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club, the Blues, is an Australian Rules Football team that plays in the Australian Football League. It is based in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. The club began in 1864, and its first home ground was a clearing in Melbourne's Royal Park. In its first season the Blues won only one game out of ten. In 1877, the club joined the Victorian Football Association, and then in 1897 it joined the Victorian Football League as one of its original teams. After using grounds in East Melbourne and Melbourne University, the club moved to its new football ground at Princess Park, Carlton in 1897. In 1908, the club added the letters CFC to its navy blue jumpers.
Carlton has won 16 Premierships in the VFL/AFL, the last one was in 1995.
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, the Bombers, is an Australian Rules Football team which plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club began in 1872, and played its first game in 1873 against Carlton. In 1877, the team joined the Victorian Football Association.
Essendon was one of the original teams in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which began in 1897. The other teams were Collingwood, Fitzroy, Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton, South Melbourne and Geelong). Its first home ground was the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, and at the end of the 1921 season the club moved to the Essndon Recreation Reserve, known as Windy Hill. In 2000, the club moved its home ground to Etihad Stadium.
James Naismith
James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian and naturalized American sports coach and innovator. Naismith invented the sport of basketball in 1891. He is also said to have introduced the first football helmet. Naismith wrote the original basketball rulebook and started the University of Kansas basketball program. He lived to see basketball become an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
He taught at the University of Kansas (KU) and was a part-time basketball coach from 1898 to 1907. He was also the Athletic Director for the Kansas Jayhawks, the sports teams at KU.
Naismith has been made a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Legends Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas State Sports Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was named after him.
Dr. Naismith was born in 1861 in Ramsay Township (now Almonte, Ontario). His parents were both from Scotland. They met and married in Lanark County, Canada. Naismith was not good at school, but enjoyed farm work. He usually spent his days outside playing catch, hide and seek, or duck on a rock. This is old game in which a person guards a large stone from other players, who try to knock it down by throwing smaller stones at it. Naismith soon found that a soft lobbing throw was often much better than a straight hard throw in this game. This thought was later very important when he invented basketball. When he was nine, his parents died from typhoid fever. Naismith lived with his grandmother and his uncle for many years. He went to grade school at Bennies Corners near Almonte, then Almonte High School, and graduated in 1883.
In the same year, Naismith entered McGill University in Montreal. He was described as quite thin, 5 foot 10 ½ inches tall and weighing 168 pounds. He was a talented and quick-moving athlete who played for McGill in Canadian football, soccer and gymnastics. He also played center on the football team, where he wore the first football helmet. Naismith won many Wicksteed medals for outstanding gymnastics performances. Naismith earned a BA in Physical Education (1888) and a Diploma at the Presbyterian College in Montreal (1890). From 1891 on, Naismith taught physical education and became the first McGill director of athletics. He left Montreal to become a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith is also a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.