Courtesy Nikki Rooke, A1GP
London - A1 Grand Prix's Executive Board and Seatholders met today in London to discuss the upcoming season and a variety of changes, both commercial and technical, to be implemented in the Series' second season to commence 1 October in Zandvoort, the Netherlands.
Among discussion points that were agreed were:
- The extension of the Feature race from 60 minutes to 70 minutes.
- The reduction of the Sprint race from 30 minutes to 20 minutes as well as a change in the points system, allocating points to the top six finishers only. - The points system and prize money for the Feature race will remain unchanged.
- The time between the Sprint race and the Feature race will be increased to nearly three and a half hours allowing for scrutineering, the lodging of any protests and technical adjustments to the cars.
Recent A1 television deals included license agreement renewals in the Netherlands with RTL7 and TV3 in New Zealand. In addition Sky Sports UK has agreed to allow a delayed race broadcast to be made available on terrestrial television.
A1's broadcast team will be in France later this week meeting with French broadcast carriers as well as EuroSport, the incumbent licensee, to discuss next year's broadcast plans in the territory.
A1 Grand Prix has committed to a 12 race calendar for the 2006/07 season with specific locations to be confirmed shortly. New franchise applications were also discussed as well as a general review of the performance of all existing franchises with a view towards potential changes in location and ownership for the coming season.
