16/01/2009
NEWS STORY
A1GP organizers have been forced to accept round five of its 2008/09 season, which was due to take place on 6-8 February at Lippo Village, Indonesia, can no longer go ahead. This follows notification this morning from the FIA that certain aspects of the track construction project, undertaken by the local promoter and organisers of the event, have failed to meet the requisite completion deadlines. As a result, the FIA is not able to issue the necessary circuit licence on time for the event to proceed, and has removed the event entry from its International Series calendar.
This information was given to A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva, today and his comment was: "Obviously it is extremely disappointing for all concerned and not the news any of us wanted. The bottom line is, for safety reasons, A1GP cannot race on a circuit that does not meet or has not received the necessary licence from the FIA, so we have no other option but to cancel all plans to bring the A1GP show to Indonesia in three weeks' time".
The series will now go from next week's event at Taupo, New Zealand, to Gauteng, South Africa, which is on 20-22 February.
A1GP do not plan to run the Indonesian event at a later date in Season Four, but may consider an event in Season Five.