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The Weekly Grapevine

This week, Dieter Rencken looks at the A1 GP calendar; and Ferrari, Marlboro & Rossi

Is silent but perceptible pressure being applied against A1 Grand Prix before it, the self-styled 'World Cup Of Motorsports', even has its inaugural race? Whether by design or pure co-incidence, it would appear so. These 'squeezes' not being totally unexpected given the hype and speculation the series has generated since being announced by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum at a glamorous launch at his family's five-star Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai 18 months ago, and, to many, it was just a matter of time before the established Championships and their rights' holders threw hi-tech spanners into the spokes of A1 GP's highly polished wheels.

First off, strengthening rumours in Formula One circles suggest that, next year, the Championship will venture outside its traditional early-March to mid-October window in order to accommodate the 19 or 20 races required by Bernie Ecclestone to make up for annual income lost after his sale of 75% of SLEC to a trio of banks without the burden of four races crammed into five weekends.

With A1 GP having set itself up as a (European) winter Championship, any creep into late-October/November will seriously impact upon the number of weekends open to the fledgling series. Given that F1's dates are 'blocked' off first, bitter few uncommitted weekends remain for A1 GP's scheduled 12 races outside of December and January, or for that matter, within those two months.

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