France and its Three Musketeers in Durban!

The French team announced the exceptional presence of three drivers this weekend in Durban for the South African event. Loic Duval, who helped secure the title in 2005/2006, will also be there, despite being occupied simultaneously in Japan and having announced his unavailability until the end of the season.

Loïc Duval, who had enabled A1 Team France to regain the lead in the championship for the past two races, had announced he must leave the team to attend to other commitments in national championships that are supposed to take priority over A1 GP.

However, his team in Formula Nippon, Nakajima Racing, agreed to let him race on Saturday in South Africa for the qualifications and races. On Friday, it will be Nicolas Prost and Jonathan Cochet who will drive the French A1 during the practice sessions on the street circuit.

Olivier Panis, the sporting director of A1 Team France, hopes that with his three complementary drivers, they will be able to take the lead in the competition starting next Monday for the last three races.

« We are arriving in Durban with motivation multiplied by ten since we know we can take the lead in the championship as early as this weekend. For that, we will have three very determined drivers as well! »

« Our goal will be to make no mistakes during practice and qualifying on a track that is always very challenging. We will then be fully capable of reaching the podium and winning both races. » Continues the former Formula 1 driver.

« I would like to thank Nakajima Racing in Japan for releasing Loic [Duval] this weekend. I also want to thank the organizers who are going to bend the rules to allow Duval to arrive late for the qualifying. »

Duval will indeed have to be in Japan a few hours earlier to conduct tests in Formula Nippon. The presence of three drivers is also extremely rare, as only Greece had benefited from this agreement in 2006.