Teams still with one car only

Although many nations have their second car ready to roll at this weekend's Australian round, not all teams have had their chassis and engines made available to them just yet.

Therefore, in the interest of fairness, teams have to nominate one chassis to use for the entire weekend, and can only use their second chassis for spare parts.

Global Operations Manager John Wickham said that it was unlikely the second cars will be run at the next round of the championship at Sepang, and instead it is more likely that they will be ready for the final round of 2005, in Dubai.

Wickham told autosport.com: "It's a shame but we just haven't got the parts yet. I doubt they will be ready for Malaysia, but Dubai is looking more likely."

The news is a blow to the series that had marketed itself as a teams championship, where nations would have two cars and could alternate their use as they like between the race weekend's four practice sessions, four qualifying periods and two races.

If, as predicated, the second cars are not available at Malaysia, then teams will have been unable to alternate cars at five of the inaugural season's 12 rounds.