Adrian Zaugg insists A1 Team South Africa can bounce back from its below average start to the season and become a winning team again.

The team heads into his home event next weekend resting ninth in the current championship standings – a world away from the same stage last season, when it went into its home race fourth, having already scored two victories.

But this season has not been as rewarding for Zaugg, with the team’s best results being a brace of fifth places in Chengdu’s Sprint and Sepang’s Feature races.

The 22-year-old says the main issues have been trying to get to grips with the balance of the team’s new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car, and set it up to his liking to be able to push it as hard as possible. 

“It has not really been the season we’ve wanted so far,” Zaugg told A1GP.com. “From the first test we had some issues with the car. When entering a corner the set up doesn’t really allow me to push, so the more I push the worse it gets and that’s what we are still fighting to try and solve.

“I don’t know if it is just one or two things only, but there seems to be something for us which makes it very hard to really push to the limit with the car because it gets extremely nervous.  I am sure if we get rid of that problem the team should be back to being competitive.

“We’re not really where we want to be. But I have lots of confidence in the engineering team and that the whole squad will figure it out and can get going.”

Last year Zaugg demonstrated an A1GP car at Kyalami although, like the rest of the field, he has never driven one in anger at the 4.26-km circuit. He predicts a challenge for the drivers.

“You can compare it to Zandvoort or Eastern Creek,” he added. “There are ups and downs, quick turns, blind turns, it has a bit of everything. There are some slow and fast chicanes, and it’s quite bumpy in some places but it’s still a nice mix. Overtaking will be difficult, but there will be one or two places where it will definitely be possible.

“The key will be to have a car that works well over bumps and is good in direction changes, because there are some fast and slow chicanes. A responsive car will be important."