A1GP Mexico City Cancelled Due to Swine Flu

Mexican fans during the 2009 round of the A1 GP Mexico City

The Mexico round of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport, initially scheduled on May 22, was scrapped from the series' schedule this year due to the recent outbreaks of swine flu. In addition, the UK Foreign Office have advised every citizen to limit their visitation to Mexico only to essential traveling. This year, the event in Mexico City was scheduled to be the season finale.

“To say we are disappointed to have to make this call is an understatement. When the news of the health problems broke last week we made sure we kept ourselves up to date with the latest information,” said A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira, in a press release.

“It soon became obvious this was not an isolated health risk, and when the UK Foreign Office put out its advisory and the World Health Organization raised the level of influenza pandemic alert that was when we had to make our decision. We must have the safety of all members of the A1GP community as well as the thousands of loyal fans in Mexico City as our prime concern,” added the Portuguese official.

As announced by Teixeira, Brands Hatch will now become the final round of the 2008/09 season.

“If we had flown our cars out and not been able to send the teams to run them it would have been a waste of time and money. However, this cancellation does not impact on the future of the series and once Brands Hatch is over we shall be concentrating on Season Five, for which plans are already well advanced,” added the A1 GP chairman.

This means there will be 3 teams battling for the A1 GP title this weekend: Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal. The three teams are separated by only 6 points in the overall classification, which means no matter what will happen in the Sprint Race, the title will be decided after the second race on Sunday. Switzerland is currently leading the series, 2 points ahead of Ireland and 6 more than Portugal.