Jeddah Corniche Circuit

SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX

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May 21, 2004
On announcing Mark Nieuwlaar's race seat for the Monaco Grand Prix, F1VWC News caught caught up with last years Phoenix F1 driver Jan Kelder. It was a chance encounter, but revealed some background information on both team and driver preparation for the event.

Jan had the following to say:-

"Well, when Mark was asked to race at the Monaco track this season, we were deleberating about it.

Normal life Mark has less time due to his very active job, but just during the time between Ascension Day and Pentecost he had some more time available, so he decided to race.

He asked me to be his race engineer during this race.

We have a rather busy week, as we both are participating in the test session for the Phoenix team in France.

Immediately after the session on Friday we are leaving for Monaco with my private Learjet plane. With all the money I received from the Phoenix F1 team last year, I exchanged my Cessna!

As we have not tested very much on street circuits like Monaco, Mark did many tests on a real karting circuit to get a taste of the walls, outlining the track. Mark is a very, very fast go karter and it will help him for sure in Monaco.

I will accompany Mark for the whole race weekend and help him with set up, strategy and all rules according the F1VWC, so we hope to finish the race with no penalties. I am looking forward to meeting Antonio again, reminiscing all good old stories. Antonio has done a very good job up to now".

There is no doubt that Mark will have all the help he could possibly have from the vast knowledge of Kelder. We'll have to see how he performs with race fuel onboard in Qualifying, something he may be unfamiliar with. He is expected to test on Day 4 in Magny Cours to get a better feel for the car.