World Cup of Motorsport Champions A1 Team Ireland are planning for life without driver Adam Carroll, team boss Mark Gallagher has admitted to setanta.com.
Carroll was a key component in the Irish team that claimed a 17-point win over Switzerland at Brands Hatch last month, with reserve driver Niall Quinn leading the charge to replace the Portadown native should he, as tipped, secure a new role in Formula 1.
“We have already thought about next season because motor racing is a relentless business,” Gallagher told setanta.com in an exclusive interview. “I’ve spoken to Adam about next season from an A1 point of view, but he’s looking to see if there are other opportunities going to come his way.
“He has had interest from both IRL and F1 teams, and I think that’s going to build. The coverage, particularly internationally, is only filtered through now, so he’s now on people’s radar.
“For the team, Plan A would be that Adam comes back and defends his title. For Adam, that would be Plan B. He would prefer to go onwards and upwards.
He continued: “I’ve had a meeting with Niall Quinn. He’s done an absolutely fantastic job for us as the reserve driver. For a season and a half he has stood on the sidelines, been overlooked by the media and not really got an awful lot of time in the car but he has been absolutely superb as a driver and as a team player.
“I told him: be patient, you’re time will come. It may be that his time will come now, but there are other drivers who are talking to us. We had Peter Dempsey with us in Brands Hatch, but we’re loyal as well.
“Niall will be our first port of call in terms of giving a driver the first opportunity to replace Adam. If he can show us in testing or preparations that he’s the man for the job – I see no reason why he can’t be because he’s driven the car for a year and he knows the tracks now – so he should be in a position to step up to the mark. But it is a big challenge and he is a still a young lad. He’s also got to really prove himself.”
For Gallagher, the Championship win was the result of years of hard work, and he was quick to admit that the achievement ranks highest on his own personal career list.
“The feeling of euphoria after winning it was very much the same as when we won those Grand Prix races while I was at Jordan, particular the three of them on merit - in Belgium in 1998 and France and Italy in 1999.
“I remember those days extremely well and the feeling of being on top of the world, but I think this one was on a higher level though because although it’s A1 and not F1, it’s been, personally, a much bigger trip to me.
“To set the team up and build it up, it’s been a hard slog. It’s also satisfying because Ireland as a sporting nation doesn’t really have a celebration in relation to motorsport all the time.
“David Kennedy, John Hynes and Teddy Yip are my partners in the team and they deserve huge acknowledgement for what they’ve done. Without the partners who bring you the money, the advice and the support, it’s just not possible.
“I certainly felt that not only was it a victory celebrated by Adam as a driver and me as Team Principal, but everybody, even those guys. David, John and Teddy – every sporting team needs them – they are the people that provide the guidance, the support and the finance. It’s good to have the sounding board and I’ve felt the benefit of that.”
Gallagher feels that it was the manner in which the title was sealed that was the most satisfying aspect of all.
“It was really the perfect weekend,” he admitted. “We had two pole positions and two race wins, and it was an emphatic victory for Adam - he could not have performed any better.
“The car was prepared reliably; the crew didn’t miss a beat. The pitstops went extremely well and, in the Sprint Race, they brought Adam victory because he actually started on pole position but was overtaken by Mexico.
“I have to admit that even I am quite shocked by the manner in which (Adam) won. Up to that weekend we were worrying about the permutations: what if we were first and Switzerland were second or what if we were second and they were first.
"Little did we know that Adam had this secret plan up his sleeve, which was to just completely wipe the floor with everybody. It worked perfectly. It was great.
“Much of what Adam has learned over the past two years is to use his immense skills in a very focused way, when he needs to. He was the consummate professional – he went out there and beat everyone in a straight fight and then really tried to give the plaudits to the team. There is no question though that he did a particularly stunning job.”
And Gallagher is certain that the decision to bring Carroll on board for the 2007/08 season signalled a measurable change in the squad’s fortunes.
“Our first win in Mexico was certainly a milestone in terms of our first win. We knew then that we were on to a good thing and that Adam’s results were going to come all the time.
“However, I felt the turning point was getting Adam to drive for us in the first place because I really believed in his talent. No disrespect for any of the other drivers who had driven for us: I just felt that because he had raced in GP2 and tested F1 cars, he was at a point in his career that he had everything in place to bring us something a bit special,” Gallagher revealed.
“We could see when we started working with him that he had huge ability, but he was also looking for something. He was hoping that we could bring him something. He said: 'you may not have ever had the driver you quite wanted, but I’ve never had quite the team I wanted.'
“It was a meeting of needs, and that developed into a real partnership. We supported each other and the results are clear for all to see.
“It’s held up as rocket science, this business of becoming winners but, in reality, it’s actually very straight forward. The frustrating bit is that if it is so straight forward, why is it not easy to do all the time!
“It’s now clearer to me that ever before that all the basics have to be right – there have to be good relationships, you have to have a driver who believes in the engineer, you have to have an engineer who believes in the driver and you need to have a team who can walk the walk and not just talk the talk."
Preserving A1 Team Ireland’s place at the top of the ladder will be as difficult as getting there in the first place, and Gallagher acknowledges that even one change within his ranks will mean, effectively, starting from scratch.
“Over the first two years, we really learned how not to win. Over the last two years, we learned how to win and then did it emphatically, and we also know what we need to do going forward.
“However, to recapture that winning feeling that we created as a team will be very difficult, even if one person changes - if that one person is Adam Carroll or whether that one person is a mechanic. If even one person of the team changes, it becomes more difficult to re-discover that winning formula.”
The 2008/09 season may just be over, but for Gallagher and his off-track team, the break is short before focus turns to next season.
“The whole point of A1 Team Ireland was to bring on young Irish drivers and give them the chance of a lifetime to compete in a World Championship and now win a World Championship.
“Even if Adam never makes it to Formula 1 he will always be able to look at the pictures of himself winning the World Cup of Motorsport, knowing that he achieved that at world level.
“I’m confident that he will go on and there should be by now a queue of young drivers waiting to follow on.
“The big question is whether the success that we have achieved translates into commercial success in terms of sponsorship going forward. The team has to be a business and we would like to come back and defend our Championship title with the support of some Irish companies.
“It’s a difficult economic environment, but then there are not too many Irish World Champions, so we’re hoping that the win translates into that and also better TV coverage. It’s five months away, but, on the other hand, it will go quickly. In the meantime, we’ve an awful lot of work to do.”