SPECTACULAR! A1 Team Switzerland gives their chance to two young lady drivers
Zurich - Tuesday, September 18, 2007; Max Welti,
Team Principal A1 Team Switzerland, decided to
bring the team to quite unusual approach to
testing by giving their chance to drive for their
national team to two young lady drivers: Rahel Frey and Natacha Gachnang.
The ladies shoot out for the A1 Team Switzerland
will be organized at Silverstone on Tuesday,
September 18 and Wednesday Sep. 19, 2007.
This
last test, also conducted by veteran of the team
driver Neel Jani, is the countdown to the very
first race of the third season of A1 GP in
Zandvoort, (The Netherlands) on 30 September 2007.
Max Welti, Team Principal of A1 Switzerland
comments: "This shootout event at Silverstone
will decide which of the two lady drivers will
have the chance to represent their national team
starting with the Brno Grand Prix, 2nd leg of the
A1 GP Championship. It is very stressful for our
two candidates. I anticipate that they will know
how to calculate the level of risk involved and be fast.
I already talked to Rahel Frei last season and am
glad to have convinced her to join us. As for
Natacha Gachnang she is Sebastien Buemi's cousin.
She came to our attention this year after her
podium racing in Formula Mazda in Portland (USA).
"It is becoming more normal for young women to
race cars. Like Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis
(the first ever woman F1 driver in 1958), the
Italian Lella Lombardi (the first ever woman to
score a point in F1 in the 1975 Spanish GP),
Divina Galica (the only F1 British racing
driver), or Italian Giovanna Amati (who drove on
the Brabham F1), USA Danica Patrick or Britain
Katherine Legge, these two exceptional Swiss
young lady drivers through their results have
already raised the profile of women in
motorracing as a whole. As A1 Team Switzerland,
we would like to give them a chance to compete at
such a young age and may be to race as a rookie
driver for their countries in the upcoming A1 GP season".
-credit: team switzerland
