Just days after confirming October’s Gold Coast street race as the
opening round of the 2009-2010 season the future of A1GP is in
doubt again after its British arm collapsed last Wednesday.
According to the British newspaper the Telegraph the British
operation has been wound up leaving several suppliers unpaid and a
staff of about 40 looking for new jobs. A spokesperson for the
company A1 Grand Prix Operations Limited said: “Like many other
companies in today’s difficult economic environment, we had
cashflow problems and we haven’t been able to pay them (the
suppliers).“ 2009 is the fourth year of the A1GP which was founded
by Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum. He left the group as a part of
a major financial restructuring which was to have included floating
the company on the London Stock Exchange. Unattributed sources said
that current A1GP CEO, South African businessman Tony Teixiera. had
said that it was possible that current British workers could be
reemployed through other arms of the organisation. The collapse of
the British Operations division, who are responsible for the day to
day running of the series is just the latest in a long line of
financial concerns regarding the series. Just where this may leave
the promoters of the “Nitro” Super GP is anybody’s guess as the
Queensland Government has previously said that it was not
interested in supporting the event unless it had a substantial
International component. V8 Supercar boss Tony Cochrane has
suggested openly on several occasions that he believed the event
would soon become a V8 Supercar only affair.