A total of 23 teams and 42 drivers have been announced for the opening round of the A1 Grand Prix season at Zandvoort, two less than lined up on the grid for last year's inaugural curtain raiser at
Brands Hatch.
Indeed, the grid will be one less than expected after Turkey was missing from the list, even if newcomers Greece and Singapore have both unveiled a comprehensive three driver team for their debut in the series, going some way to replacing Russia, Austria, Portugal and Japan, who all competed at Brands Hatch last season but have chosen not to enter this year.
With a number of expected drivers still indisposed due to commitments in other series', the nominated driver list is certainly a mixture of youth and experience, even if there is a clear leaning towards those with less miles under their belt.
Reigning champions France lead the way with Nicolas Lapierre, with Loic Duval providing backing support while Alex Premat makes his
F1 weekend debut in China for Spyker, while Great Britain will travel to Holland armed with Darren Manning and Oliver Jarvis after Robbie Kerr was forced to miss Zandvoort in favour of the World Series by Renault.
Returnees include Alex Yoong for Malaysia, Matt Halliday for New Zealand and Ananda Mikola for Indonesia, although with the likes of Niko Hulkenberg, Sebastien Buemi and Adrian Zaugg out to impress for Germany, Switzerland and South Africa respectively, new talent is arguably the theme for the first round.
Shown in italics on the list below, teams have been able to nominate who takes part in the rookie practice sessions before qualifying, an incentive that includes drivers under 25 years of age and has competed in no more than three races in total.
A1 Grand Prix nominated drivers for the first round of the 2006/2007 season opener at Zandvoort, Holland
Australia Karl Reindler, Ian Dyk, Ryan Briscoe
Brazil Tuka Rocha,
Ruben Carrapatso
Canada James Hinchcliffe
China Teng Zi Jiang,
Congfu Cheng
Czech Republic Thomas Kostka,
Jan Charouz
France Loic Duval, Nicolas Lapierre
Germany Niko Hulkenberg
Great Britain Oliver Jarvis, Darren Manning
Greece Takis Kaitazis,
Vasilis Papafilippoy, Stelios Nousias
India Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia Ananda Mikola,
Moreno Soeprapto
Ireland Michael Devaney,
John O'Hara
Italy Michele Rugolo, Pier Guidi Alessandro
Lebanon Alex Khateeb, Basil Shaaban, Khalil Beschir
Malaysia Alex Yoong
Mexico Sergio Perez, Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Matt Halliday
Pakistan Nur Ali
Singapore Hafiz Koh, Christian Murchison,
Denis Lian
South Africa Adrian Zaugg, Stephen Simpson
Switzerland Sebastien Buemi
USA Philip Giebler,
Jonathan Summerton
