Q: Tom Dillmann tested in Silverstone one month before the new season kicked off at Zandvoort (The Netherlands), on 30 September 2007 what was the outcome?
A: On the final day of the Silverstone tests, the team fielded two of us:
Sebastien Buemi who drove in the morning and myself for the afternoon.
Between us, we completed 81 laps. I can remember that Buemi got in 47 laps while I covered 34 laps. Everything was new to me and it was a big step forward from F3. I wish the test would have lasted longer.
But everything was new to me from more horsepower than F3 to gear levers on the back of the wheel. Even the track was new!"
Q: Tom Dillmann have you been in Taupo or Sydney before?
A: No! And it is the first time that I will fly that far to New Zealand and Australia .
In fact, I have never been so far away. I do not know the tracks and have never experienced driving there in real life. So, for a start, I have discovered the tracks on the PlayStation.
It is not real, but it is a start for someone like me who has never experienced driving there. Usually it is not too difficult to learn a new track, and a matter of roughly five laps. It gets more complicated when you have to adapt to a new car and a new track.
In the summer, I felt that the more laps I was able to do, the most confident I got. Overall I had a good day which helped the team’s engineer to go through the entire team program to progress, even if I also never got a run on new tyres.
Q: How do you feel to represent team A1 Team Switzerland?
A: Extremely proud! I had wished to be with them as early as Zhuhai, but I was not able to attend as I was doing some tests for a French team "SG Formula" based in La Rochelle. So now my dream is fulfilled.
Q: How do you prepare for your first A1GP race?
A: I will go in the first week of January to a Red Bull training session near Salzburg to prepare the season and come to Sydney in good condition.
TOM DILLMANN’s biography:
Born on 6 April 1989, Tom Dillmann is one of the young racing hopes of the moment. Tom Dillmann's racing career started in karting with 9 years of age, and by 14 he was driving Formula-Renault 1600 and earned his first podium in Spa (Belgium), the first of many other podiums for the young driver and three podiums this 2007 season: amongst them Norisring and Barcelona.
By 2006, Tom Dillmann had not got any Formula 3 experience under his belt but was the only rookie of the ASM Formula 3 line-up. Dillmann contested the 2006 Formula Renault Eurocup and finished eighth.
The youngster from Mulhouse secured three podium finishes but failed to make it to the highest step of the podium. In the season finale, held at Barcelona, he delivered his best performance by finishing second in both qualifying sessions and both races, with the new champion, Filipe Albuquerque, being the only man to defeat him.
Like Grosjean, Dillmann also secured his best result in France and in a championship he didn’t contest completely. Both at Le Mans and Magny-Cours, Dillmann won a round of the French Formula Renault Championship round he competed in only occasionally.
In 2007, Dillmann completed the driver line-up signed by ASM Formula 3 for the 2007 Formula 3 Euro Series season. Along with Frenchman Romain Grosjean he teamed-up with Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Germany’s Nico Hülkenberg, this year. Tom Dillmann is now part of the Red Bull Racing Junior team. He has been selected as the rookie A1 Team Switzerland in the Australian (Sydney) and New Zealand (Taupo) 2008 races.
Tom Dillmann
Web: www.tom-dillmann.com
Birthday: 06/04/1989
Place of birth: Mulhouse (F)
Place of residence: Rixheim (F)
Motorsport since: age 9 in 1998
Hobby: Karting, mountain bike
Favorite food: Swiss fondue
Favorite drink: Red Bull
Prepared Music: Ipop/Rock
Favorite Color: yellow
Helmet: Yellow and Blue and I have done the design
Favorite car: Aston Martin
Next on my list of things to do: Pass the Driving test when I get back from Australia
Career
1999-2002: Karting
2004: 5th place Belgian Formula Renault
2005: European Formula Renault
2006: European and French Formula Renault
2007: 9th place in F3 Euroseries (23 points and 3 podiums)
Follow the race on Schweizer Sportfernsehen (SSF) Live streaming on www.a1gp.com then click on view live racing stats.
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A1 Switzerland is a Swiss-based international racing team entering its third year of racing in the A1 GP series. After 11 events and 22 races around the world, A1 Team Switzerland finished the inaugural A1GP season as runners-up, winning from pole position in Dubai. Neel Jani won the sprint race and the feature race from the pole in Malaysia 2007-2008.
The drivers racing for their country in 2007-2008, for the third consecutive season will be Neel Jani and Sebastien Buemi as well as two lady rookie drivers, Rahel Frey and Natacha Gachnang who participated successfully to a shootout event at Silverstone in September 2007 and have the chance to represent their national team.
Tom Dillmann will be the Team’s rookie in Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand (Taupo).
A1 Team Switzerland’s selected best results Sprint race:
2 x 1st - Malaysia 2006/2007 (Neel Jani) and Dubai 2005/2006 (Neel Jani)
1 win Malaysia 2007/2008 (Neel Jani)
Feature race:
3 x 2nd 2005/2006 South Africa (Neel Jani), Malaysia (Neel Jani), Portugal (Neel Jani)
1 win Malaysia 2007/2008 (Neel Jani)
Pole Position: Malaysia 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 (Neel Jani), Dubai
2005/2006 (Neel Jani) Malaysia Sprint and Feature race 2007/2008 (Neel Jani)
First 2007 podium: Zandvoort (Neel Jani), Two wins on the podium: Malaysia (Neel Jani),
- Agnes Carlier - photos Tom Dillmann
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