This weekend (21st/23rd February) A1 Team France will be competing in the seventh round of the World Cup of Motorsport on the Durban circuit in South Africa.

It will have no fewer than 3 talented and experienced drivers at its disposal! Nicolas Prost will drive the car tomorrow morning in the 2 practice sessions for rookies. He will  then  be  replaced  by  Jonathan  Cochet  who  will  do  the  last  fettling-in  tests  on  Friday.

This evening, Loïc Duval, who will be attending the 2008 launch of the team with whom he  will  be  racing  in  the  Formula  Nippon  Championship  this  season,  will  jump  on  a  plane bound for Durban.

He will land on Saturday morning and will go straight to the circuit to drive the A1 Team France car for the rest of the weekend. Once again there should be a lot of on-track action.

Thanks to 6 podium placings including a victory and 11 points-scoring finishes in 12 starts, A1 Team France is in second place overall with the same number of points as New Zealand. It’s the first time this has ever happened in the history of A1GP.

Loïc Duval and the team have but a single aim in mind: to take the lead! The Durban layout is the only city circuit on the calendar, and it’s impossible to race there outside the A1GP weekend.

So the drivers’ experience of it is very limited and each second of  practice  will  count.  It  measures  3,280  kms  and  has  11  corners  including  a  tight  right- handed  hairpin  at  the  end  of  the  main  straight.  The  guardrail  is  never  more  than  a  few centimetres away, so the slightest driver error could have serious consequences for the final result.

Olivier Panis, sporting director: “We’ve arrived in Durban with our motivation boosted ten- fold as we could take the lead in the championship this weekend. To achieve this we can count  on  three  very  determined  drivers.  I’d  like  to  thank  the  Nakajima  Racing  team  for releasing  Loïc  to  race  for  us  this  weekend.  Also  a  big  thanks  to  the  organisers  who  are allowing him to drive from Saturday onwards. Our aim is to make no mistakes on this very tricky  circuit,  to  maximise  our  running  time  and  to  progress  step  by  step.  We’re  chasing podium finishes and victories this weekend.”