Like racing and football and wished there was a mix? Well you can:
- a) watch Schumacher play for his football team FC Echichens
- b) wait for the annual F1 driver's charity football match
- c) watch Superleague Formula
Superleague Formula is a new open wheeled single spec-ed racing series aimed at giving racing a World Cup feel. The last event to try that was the A1GP and that has had mixed results. The difference with Superleague is the big names supporting it. Essentially all the teams are owned by various football clubs from all over the world with top teams such as Corinthians, AC Milan and Liverpool mixing it with some no name Chinese teams. Unlike A1GP, this isn't so much World Cup but more Champions League as you can have Dutch drivers participating in Italian teams etc.
How It Works
Ok like most racing series there is qualifying on Saturday and race on Sunday, there after it just gets football like. Now of course because it is so complex I'm jus gonna cut and paste the process from Superleague's website.
Qualification process
Phase 1: First up is a draw to establish two groups of 8/9 cars for separate, individual 15 minute Qualifying sessions. Drivers will select a letter which will determine whether they are in Group A or Group B: Group A will qualify first followed by Group B (both for 15 minutes duration). Groups A & B Qualifying will normally be separated by five minutes. The four fastest cars of each session (A and B) qualify to the next stage.
Quarter finals: These eight finalists compete in a head-to-head format. They will queue in the pit lane and the first two cars will be sent off as a pair. A pre-determined gap will be maintained on the warm-up lap - close enough to entertain the crowds, far away enough so the following car is not impacted by aerodynamic factor. First car will be released one behind the other and they must maintain that formation/position until they pass the start finish line for a single flying/timed lap.
The cars will complete a single flying lap, the fastest of the pair going on to the semi-final. This is repeated three more times with four cars qualifying for the semis. Semi finals: Two semi-final shoot-outs then take place using the same head-to-head system to decide the final two cars, which will then do battle for pole position.
Final: The two semi-final winners then go head-to-head with the fastest claiming pole position for the first of Sunday's two races.
No refueling or tyre changing can take place during the session.
Got It? Cause I didn't.
Racing is a bit more simple. There are 3 races. The first race uses the qualifying positions to form the grid. This race lasts 45 mins [sounds familiar] and allows one pitstop. Everyone gets points with the winner getting 50 points. The second race reverses the grid while everything stays the same. The final race which is only 5 laps, takes the top 6 drivers in terms of points and pit them against each for a max of 6 points. Theoretically a perfect score is 106 points. Another feature in racing is a 50hp overboost button [which is similar to A1GP's] which can be activated for overtaking at a maximum of 8 times per race.
Result
I'm gonna keep tracks, probably follow a team [dunno which one cause I don't follow football and Robert Doornbos is the only driver I know] I feel with the inclusion of live internet feeds this should be an interesting watch to pass some time and with 8 races this season, it should be a sufficient filler series.
Teams that participate [and have participated] in the series
AC Milan
AS Roma
Atletico Madrid
Beijing Guoan
CR Flamengo
FC Basel 1893
FC Porto
Galatasaray S.K.
GD Bordeaux
Liverpool FC
Olympiacos CFP
Olympique Lyonnais
PSV Eindhoven
RSC Anderlecht
SC Corinthians
Sevilla FC
Sporting CP
Tottenham Hotspur
no longer participating
Al Ain
Borussia Dortmund
FC Midtjylland
Rangers FC
Team China
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