New schedule to be problem for A1GP

As we sit here examining the announced 2006/2007 A1 Grand Prix schedule we cannot help but notice that the season is longer than last years and finishes a month later. Although it was supposed to be a winter series, it is really a fall/winter/spring series now and overlaps with GP2 as well as Formula One.

This will pose a problem for the drivers and for the teams. Several teams are contracted to run A1 GP nations in the winter before moving to their summer programs of GP2, Formula Three and World Series by Renault. The question remains whether these teams can afford the additional personnel it will require to field simultaneous series.

One can also expect Bernie Ecclestone to move to squash A1GP like a bug if he thinks it is encroaching on F1 or taking sponsors away.

Recall also that the series lost over $200 million last year, a huge sum. To fly a series all over the world costs huge sums of money, vs. a Champ Car or F1 where teams use trucks to get to many of their races. The scheme now is to go public with the A1GP company to raise funds on the backs of unknowing investors. This of course will last a year or two before the company burns through that money, the stock tanks and the company declares bankruptcy.

Instead the series should find sponsorship and not rely on a public offering to exist.