A1GP will have a maximum of 18 cars on the grid for its first race of the 2008/09 season, which takes place at Zandvoort this weekend.

"We cannot blame any of the missing teams for a lack of effort. They all burnt the midnight oil and worked as hard as humanly possible to make the grid, but the car build delays just beat them," said A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva.

The good news for the Dutch fans is their own A1 Team Netherlands car will be there with Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel.

The teams also definitely racing, some of whom have been testing at Snetterton this week, are from Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the USA.

The final group of teams who are still working flat out and will have to head straight to Zandvoort are Brazil, China, France, Portugal and Switzerland.

Meanwhile Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India and Mexico will have to wait for the second event of the season for their race debuts.

While all the missing teams are obviously disappointed, they appreciate this will not seriously dent their championship ambitions. This is due to the change in the sporting regulations that means they can now drop their worst weekend score and just count their best nine results from the ten events.

Zandvoort has, in the A1GP tradition, proved an exciting event with close racing which has always been well received by the enthusiastic Dutch fans. While ticket sales have been strong there are still some grandstand seats left.