JEDDAH: Grand Prix motorsport enthusiasts will have a rare chance to view Team Malaysia Qi-MeritusMahara’s car that is taking part in the upcoming GP2 Asia Series in the Middle East. The car will arrive here from Riyadh and exhibited at In10So, Serafi Mall on Tahlia Street, on Jan. 25. The car will be on view in Riyadh on Jan. 23. The organizers of the team’s road show announced this on Tuesday during its stopover in the city -- the second stop for the team’s road show after Doha.
According to Sameer Yousef Abdulshakour, QuestNet business partner for Saudi Arabia, the road show will finally extend to Malaysia, Tajikistan, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania from April till July this year. He added that QuestNet’s decision to sponsor the Malaysian team was based on the relation between motorsport and the direct marketing industry. There is a direct relation between this sport and multilevel marketing. On both instances it requires performance, focus, passion, a winning attitude and teamwork to go ahead. “We are taking those key elements and bringing them to the fans so they can witness what it is QuestNet does and the power, passion and precision and precision we apply to our relationships,” he added.
The GP2 is the brainchild of F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone and former Renault F1 Team Manager Flavio Briatore. The GP2 is the feeder category to the F1, which means it is the training ground before moving on to F1 racing. The GP2 operates on less then a hundredth of the cost of F1 and is designed to make it the perfect training ground for drivers going on to the Formula One. As such, all teams use the same chassis, engine and tyre supplier - meaning the race really rests on the abilities of the driver, unlike F1 where a team’s technological capabilities also come into play.
The 2010 GP2 Asia series lines up 12 teams from all over the world and Team Malaysia Qi-MeritusMahara is the only team from South East Asia without the more acclaimed GP2 Europe experience.
This is the third year since inception of the GP2 Asia Racing Series that the QuestNet sponsored team will be racing. Considering the team is already sitting high on the table in fourth place after the first round of races held in Abu Dhabi this year, things bode well for the team for the rest of the season. Team driver Luca Filippi is ranked fourth with eight points and teammate Diego Nunes is at fifteenth among the 24 drivers.
The total sponsorship investment by QuestNet into Malaysia Qi-Meritus, including activation fees and operational cost, is $ 5 million for the current season, Abdulshakour said.
