10.08.2005 Following the participation of Minardi in Sunday’s 'Monaco aan de Maas' in Rotterdam, fans will have a further chance to see the F1 team in action on Dutch soil later this month

Following the participation of the Minardi F1 Team in last Sunday’s spectacular Monaco aan de Maas event in Rotterdam, fans will have a further chance to see the Faenza squad in action on Dutch soil this month, when Christijan Albers makes a special appearance at the Zandvoort round of the DTM (German Touring Car Championship) on Sunday, August 28.

It was announced at a press conference, held yesterday afternoon in Amsterdam, that Albers, an established DTM star before making the move to Formula One with Minardi in 2005, will take part in what is certain to be a crowd-pleasing “F1 versus DTM” event.

The plan calls for the 2003 DTM series runner-up to do a total of five laps in a Minardi Cosworth, following which, another driver with significant F1 connections, Mika Hakkinen, will do a similar number of laps in his DTM Mercedes.  Fans will then be invited to guess the difference between the best lap times of Albers and Hakkinen.  The five with the closest estimates will win a high-speed run on the famous Dutch coastal circuit in a specially equipped, two-seater Mercedes DTM car with Albers acting as the “chauffeur”.

“It should be another great event, and I’m really looking forward to giving the Zandvoort circuit maximum attack with my Minardi Cosworth in front of all the fans,” comments Albers.  “It will also be a lot of fun to be back behind the wheel of a DTM car again.  I learned a lot while I was in the Series, and I’m sure it helped make the transition to Formula One relatively straightforward – they may have roofs on them and the wheels may be covered, but they are definitely real race cars.”
 

Mika Hakkinen

The plan calls for Cristijan Albers to do a total of five laps in a Minardi Cosworth, following which, another driver with significant Formula 1 connections, Mika Hakkinen, will do a similar number of laps  in  his  DTM  Mercedes-Benz  (above)

Christijan Albers - Minardi
Christijan Albers - Minardi

Following the participation of the Christijan Albers and the Minardi F1 Team in last Sunday’s spectacular Monaco aan de Maas event in Rotterdam, fans will have a further chance to see the Faenza squad in action on Dutch soil later this month


Minardi Team Principal, Paul Stoddart, says, “This offers another great opportunity for Formula One to make itself more accessible to the fans, so we had no hesitation in making Christijan and one of our Minardi Cosworth chassis available for the special programme at the Zandvoort DTM event.

"Logistically, the situation is complicated by the fact the team is scheduled to participate in the Monza test on the Thursday and Friday before Zandvoort, but by using some of our British-based personnel, we have been able to accommodate both commitments.”
 

Related articles
08.08.2005

Minardi drivers Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos received a rapturous welcome from Dutch F1 fans who flocked to the centre of Rotterdam in their thousands on Sunday afternoon

Report: Minardi; © 2005 Interfuture Media/Italiaspeed