Who won all that money?

Published on 06 April 2006 by Thorsten Hendriks

In a sport not known for prize money, A1 Grand Prix has an unusually generous allocation for the top ten finishers in the Feature Race at each A1 Grand Prix of Nations. With $1,000,000 on offer at each of the 11 rounds, the grand total comes to $11,000,000, divided as follows from first place down to tenth: $300,000, $200,000, $150,000, $110,000, $80,000, $60,000, $40,000, $30,000, $20,000 and $10,000.

A1 Team France were the runaway inaugural A1 Grand Prix champions and this was reflected in their prize money tally of $1,920,000 for the team and $990,000 and $930,000 respectively for drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandre Premat. By splitting the rounds between them, though, they were headed on the driver prize money list by A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani who clocked up $1,060,000 in prize money before relinquishing the drive with two rounds remaining to go off to concentrate on his third driver duties in Formula 1 with Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Eventual ranking in the points table isn't a guarantee of the largest prize money tally possible as some teams had their better results in the Sprint Races before stumbling in the Feature Races, thus missing the opportunity of prize money. A1 Team Great Britain was a notable underachiever in prize money for this very reason, even though the team still earned $820,000, with retirements from the Feature Race at the Brands Hatch establishing something of a trend. Feature Race disappointments were to follow at Sepang, Durban, Sentul and Shanghai. Conversely, A1 Team Netherlands ranked seventh overall, but earned the fourth largest amount of prize money.

    Nations                              Drivers
 1. Frankrijk        $1,920,000      1. Jani      $1,060,000
 2. Zwitserland      $1,060,000      2. Lapierre    $990,000
 3. Groot-Brittannië   $820,000      3. Premat      $930,000
 4. Nederland          $770,000      4. Kerr        $820,000
 5. Canada             $660,000      5. Verstappen  $770,000
    Australië          $660,000      6. Yoong       $570,000
 7. Maleisië           $650,000      7. McIntosh    $540,000
 8. Nieuw-Zeeland      $600,000      8. Duran       $510,000
 9. Tsjechië           $510,000         Enge        $510,000
    Mexico             $510,000     10. Parente     $500,000
11. Portugal           $500,000     11. Halliday    $460,000
12. Brazilië           $490,000     12. Piquet      $380,000
13. Duitsland          $360,000     13. Scheider    $360,000
14. Italië             $350,000     14. Firman      $290,000
15. Ierland            $290,000         Simpson     $290,000
    Zuid-Afrika        $290,000     16. Toccacelo   $250,000
17. Verenigde Staten   $190,000     17. Power       $200,000
18. Oostenrijk         $130,000     18. Briscoe     $180,000
19. China               $80,000     19. Marshall    $150,000
    Pakistan            $80.000     20. Reid        $140,000
21. Japan               $50,000     21. Davison     $130,000
22. Indonesië           $30,000     22. Carpentier  $120,000
                                    23. Fittipaldi  $110,000
                                        Lauda       $110,000
                                        Speed       $110,000
                                    26. Fauzy        $80,000
                                        Jiang        $80,000
                                        Khan         $80,000
                                    29. Busnelli     $60,000
                                    30. Herta        $50,000
                                    31. Papis        $40,000
                                    32. Fukuda       $30,000
                                        Giebler      $30,000
                                        Mikola       $30,000
                                    35. Friesacher   $20,000
                                        Noda         $20,000

Thorsten Hendriks