More Than A Race

The 2007 Aerobatic World Champion, Ramon Alonso, is set to thrill SF race fans by performing aerobatic displays three times over each Superleague Formula weekend – once on Saturday and twice on raceday.

Alonso is just a part of the full programme of fan activities (organised around a Central Stage area) on SF race weekends, aimed at providing a large range of family entertainment, including DJs, break-dancers, freestyle football displays, face-painters and prize-giving.

Fans will also be able to take the opportunity to have their photograph taken with team show cars, and to meet the drivers for autograph sessions, too.

Additional entertainment will include a Motorcycle Stunt-Show (featuring World Champion Streetbike Freestylers Chris Pfeiffer), Paramotors (six pilots performing beautifully coordinated flights aboard SF-branded paragliders, using pyrotechnic effects),

There will be a ‘Football Zone’ with giant human football table, penalty shoot-outs, radar shoot outs, XXL table football unit, a Karting Zone (with brand new 200cc karts) and special interactives that help to improve reaction, hand-eye coordination and stamina – just like SF drivers.

“Our plan from the start was to establish Superleague Formula as more than just a motor race – we want to provide an extensive array of entertainment options for the entire family,” says SF boss, Alex Andreu. “We think we have a great line up of entertainment – both on the ground and in the skies above.

“Superleague Formula will bring a host of new fans to the track who have never been to a motorsport event before and our goal is to be able to provide them with an excellent experience.”

Doornbos joins AC Milan Superleague Formula Assault

Ex-Formula 1 driver and Champ Car World Series race winner Robert Doornbos has been signed as the race driver for AC Milan’s assault on the inaugural Superleague Formula championship.

The 25-year-old Dutchman drove for Minardi and Red Bull in Formula 1 before earning the rookie of the year title and three race wins in Champ Car last year.

“I am so pleased to have reached an agreement with AC Milan and Scuderia Playteam,” Doornbos said.

“For me it is a really exciting as I’ve always been a huge AC Milan fan. My aunt Jeanine actually used to be the physio of the famous successful trio of Dutch players Marco van Basten, Franck Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit.

“At school I could show off and share with my friends all the latest stickers of the club. Now they have left or retired, but current Dutch champion Clarence Seedorf who is currently at the club is my best friend.

“I also drove in F1 for Minardi and I have kept good contacts with Giancarlo Minardi whose son now manages Scuderia Playteam. It’s definitely a small world. My first chief engineer in racing was Gabriele Tredozi – now the technical director for the team.

“I speak fluent Italian also so that will be very handy!” Doornbos will get his first opportunity to drive the 750 horsepower, V12 powered Superleague Formula car at the Monteblanco circuit near Seville from July 9-10-11.

PSV Superleague Formula Car Reveal

At last, here’s the reveal of the Superleague Formula car for Dutch entrants, PSV Eindhoven, at their Fan Day last week… with PSV MD, Jan Reker (click here for interview) and Alex, pushing the button.

In addition, here’s some additional footage of the car on the pitch at the Philips Stadium…

And don’t forget, you can watch all the films that we’ve put together so far on our YouTube channel here.

PSV Fan Day: Film exclusive

The movie of the day of the fans and the girls!!! More footage to come of the car reveal but for now… Enjoy 😉

A Day to Remember!

Following on from last night’s post, the PSV Fan Day was a stunning success… and a great day was had by all!

That said, the day had started off very windy, which was a big worry for us (seeing as we had the car housed in a cage that was suspended from a crane!). Thankfully the weather held out and the doors opened to about 20,000 PSV fans who were all dressed up in their colours and ready to enjoy the day at the Philips Stadium…

There was a lot going on, thanks to the club’s sponsors who had all organised activities, as well as a main stage with live music blasting out! The big moment for Superleague Formula arrived when Alex and PSV’s MD Jan Reker got up on the stage, surrounded by six beautiful (race) girls to launch the PSV car.

On the press of a button, a giant crane swung into action, lifting the club’s Superleague Formula car over the heads of the fans watching from below, who were then treated to a display of confetti, streamers and fireworks. The crowd loved this spectacular reveal – there were big cheers all round. You can see more images of this on PSV’s website here.

After that, the crowds filed into the Philips Stadium where they watched some football action with kids and famous personalities – all of which went on with the car in the centre circle which was, without doubt, a very strange sight!!!

The club presented their new players (including Tommie van der Leegte and Kenneth Perez) to the crowds, and then Jan Reker went onto the centre of the pitch to present a special PSV football shirt to Alex with Superleague Formula on the back.

The entire 2007/08 football squad then got down from their podium to join them for the photograph and to admire the car, including Jonathan Reis (above), who decided to get inside… and seemed to look quite at home in the driver’s seat!

Once again, we want to thank everybody at PSV for their help and support. You were all amazing! And most of all, thanks to all the passionate PSV fans for their enthusiasm and warm welcome.

For those checking in here for the first time, don’t forget that you can add your thoughts and comments to the blog, especially in the PSV Eindhoven section… and click here for all our photos from yesterday’s extravaganza!

Let us know what you think, tell us your ideas and keep checking in to find out what’s happening as we move forward…

SF lands at PSV

Wow, what a day!!! Big thanks to PSV fans for such a warm welcome and fantastic experience, with the reveal of the car a huge hit.

It was also a wonderful sight to see the car in the middle of the pitch… A real demonstration of our championship, the car with the football stadium as the backdrop, packed out with fans.

The beautiful (race) girls were also a huge hit (what with their impeccable taste in blogs) and almost photographed more than the car!!!

Much more on the day (and loads more pics) tomorrow but for now, we just want to say thanks to all the PSV team and fans for making the day such a memorable one!

Open Day at PSV

We are still absolutely overwhelmed at the positive response that we’ve received from Flamengo fans, with lots of bloggers (click here and here, to name but two) as well as traditional media (like Internacionais do Canal and GloboEsporte and Rafael Lopes) keeping Brazil abreast of the facts behind ‘the beautiful race’…

Today, meanwhile, sees us follow our successful trip to Borussia Dortmund a couple of weeks ago with a visit to Eindhoven, where we are taking part in the club’s annual fan day – an event expected to attract more than 25,000 spectators.

As noted on Monday, in addition to the official presentation of the 2007/08 playing squad, we will be unveiling the new PSV car design in spectacular style at 4.15pm outside the stadium. If you’re not in the area to see it live, don’t worry – we will be filming all the action, as it happens, so – as always – watch this space!

“Since we announced our participation in Superleague Formula, we have received a lot of positive response from our fans, ” says PSV Eindhoven General Manager Jan Reker. “Our open day is a great family event – adding Superleague Formula is an added bonus for supporters of PSV Eindhoven. ”

“We are delighted to introduce the PSV fans to the Superleague Formula championship,” says Alex. “Today will certainly be spectacular and we are certain the Dutch fans are going to be very excited about our championship.”

Money, Drivers, Fun & Latin America

To see Superleague Formula in Spanish, click here.

Image courtesy of Mary and Paul

Thanks for all your interest so far and, in response to Diego’s comment in our Why Are We Doing It? section, we want to reiterate the fact that the participating Football Clubs will pay nothing to be a part of Superleague Formula.

In fact, clubs will actually receive a share of total revenues (plus approximately half of the car sponsorship), creating several millions of dollars every year in extra revenue which will, in turn, help them to buy the Cristiano Ronaldo‘s of this world.

As for attracting young drivers, we carried out a lot of research across five countries, with the fans of 10 well known football clubs and there was 100% agreement that we need to have the next generation – the new kids on the block and future champions. With ex-F1 / Champcar drivers and ‘old names’ out of the picture, SF will be a championship for the finest young, talented drivers in the world.

Finally, when it comes to ensuring fans attend the beautiful race, we will ensure that the prices are kept to a very sensible (low) level and – rest assured – we will be offering something very different to any other motorsport event, with fun and excitement at every turn.

It’s fantastic to see that we have hundreds of potential fans in Mexico, where we’ll soon be announcing the participation of a famous football club! We also intend to race there as soon as we can arrange it – probably from Year 2.

We will also have football clubs from Brazil and Argentina taking part, so Latin America is a big part of our plans with TV companies pledging to support and promote the Championship, so that as many people as possible will be able to watch Superleague Formula. As always, keep checking in to see what’s new and who’s lining up to take part…

Superleague Formula hits Barcelona

To see Superleague Formula in Spanish, click here.

We were at the Barcelona Motor Show last week, and our appearance on the Pronto Rotulo stand (they’re the guys who ‘wrap’ our cars in the club colours) was a huge success.

With both our PSV and AC Milan cars on display, we spoke to hundreds of people (the majority in the 18-30 age group) and distributed a stack of information, too. It was also really pleasing to discover that at least half of the people we spoke to – even at this early stage of development – had already heard of Superleague Formula.

We were particularly happy to hear that they love the fact that all the cars / engines will be the same, and were really into the idea of having reversed grids in the second race, so that Superleague Formula can be a race to show and highlight the best drivers.

Speaking of which, practically everyone asked who the drivers would be (many offered their services!)… All in all, a great experience – so much so, that we’re looking at heading off to shows in Lyon and Bologna, too! For more pictures of our Barcelona appearance, click here.

For the fans…

To see Superleague Formula in Spanish, click here.

While Anella and Alex were in Athens for the Final, they spent a lot of time looking at how the fans were being entertained to see how companies who get involved in Superleague Formula can actually activate their sponsorship with activities over the whole weekend of entertainment.

They visited the Champions Festival in the main Syntagma Square, had a quick look at what Vodafone were doing for the fans at Champions Square, and also whizzed down to the fan festival that UEFA had set up down at the old Olympic stadium, which was aimed at kids in particular but off the beaten track, really.

They also had a chance to run the rule over the fan zone at the stadium, where the sponsors were running activities such as recording the speed of fans kicking a football, human table football, etc, etc.

You can take a look at all the photos they took here and if you want to share any ideas about what you would like to do over a Superleague Formula race weekend, it would be great to hear your thoughts…