07/04/2008
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Brasil is pleased to announce that Alexandre 'Xandi' Negrao will make his race debut in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport next weekend in Shanghai, China, for round nine of the championship. Xandi has undertaken rookie duties for the squad twice, the most recent at the Durban, South Africa, event in February. Felipe Guimaraes, who joined Team Brasil as rookie driver at the last round in Mexico, will continue his role for the Shanghai weekend.
Xandi Negrao first drove for Brasil in October 2006 as rookie driver at the Brno, Czech Republic round and then took on the role again at this year's Durban weekend. Driving in the Friday morning rookie only practice sessions, Xandi finished sixth fastest in each of the 25-minute segments and impressed the team with his performance. Shanghai will see him promoted to race driver and he will drive in the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning practices before qualifying for the Sprint and Feature races on Saturday afternoon. Sunday's Sprint race will begin at 11am with the Feature following at 3pm.
Felipe Guimaraes will continue for a second event as Team Brasil's rookie driver, and will drive in Friday's two-part rookie practice session. For Xandi and Felipe, the Shanghai circuit will pose a brand new challenge as both drivers will be visiting the track for the first time. Therefore, the first task for each will be to learn the Herman Tilke designed circuit before moving onto car set-up work.
Xandi Negrao: "I am so happy to be given this opportunity by A1 Team Brasil and I can't wait to get out to Shanghai to give this my all. The car looked very good in South Africa, we were very competitive so I hope that we can have the same pace. I would like to finish in a strong points finishing position and reach the expectations of the team."
Felipe Guimares: "Things are happening very quickly for me - I didn't imagine at the age of 17 that I would be in China, driving a 550bhp car on an F1 level circuit, representing my country and being guided by Emerson Fittipaldi and I will do the best I can for A1 Team Brasil on Friday. The level of driving and competitiveness in A1GP is very high, there are some of the best young drivers of many countries there and I think A1GP is increasingly becoming the number one career choice for young drivers."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "Xandi has been part of the A1 Team Brasil family for a long time and I'm very pleased that we can give him the opportunity now to show what he can do in the races. Felipe did a solid job for us in Mexico so we are happy for him to be continuing as rookie for us. For the China round we have to look at getting some strong race results as we need good points from the weekend. There are only two rounds left and we are capable of finishing the season on a high."