With this week's sixth round of the A1 Grand Prix series set to take place in Dubai, home of the series founder Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, A1 Team Ireland has been working hard to improve its World Cup of Motorsport™ bid and heads to the UAE in optimistic mood. The opening of the team's new offices in Ballymount, Dublin, and the recruitment of further key staff underlines its determination to succeed under the management of CEO Mark Kershaw and MD Mark Gallagher.

Established in August and launched in Dublin in September, the entirely new team has been set a race winning target in the first season, and with five races gone the squad has shown its potential with a podium finish in Portugal and steadily improving qualifying performances culminating in 3rd last time out. Against the multiple championship winning teams running France, Switzerland, Brazil and Great Britain, A1 Team Ireland's faces stiff opposition.

With the A1 Grand Prix series reaching its mid-point in Dubai, A1 Team Ireland has been delighted with the series' organisation, popularity and growth. Figures show that over 8 million television viewers across 120 countries watched each of the most recent A1 Grand Prix events, and expectations are that this figure will increase for next weekend's race in Dubai. At home TV stations have supported A1 Team Ireland highlights from each race will be shown on RTE 2 in a half hour programme bi-weekly after each race. The team have received very positive support from Setanta.

A1 Team Ireland's performances have steadily improved since the team's Brands Hatch debut, qualifying performances progressing with a run of 12th, 8th, 6th and 3rd being broken only by the gearbox failure in Portugal which saw principal driver Ralph Firman start 18th and yet still score a podium finish in the Feature Race.

Aside from being one of the very few teams to have been created specifically to compete in the A1 Grand Prix series, A1 Team Ireland has also been one of the teams to swap drivers over the first five races. Ralph Firman's commitments to Team Honda Racing in Japan enabled Michael Devaney to drive in the team's debut at Brands Hatch and also in the fourth round of the series in Eastern Creek near Sydney, Australia. His performance in Sydney marked Devaney as one of the stars of the season to date, a superb drive into fourth position in the Sprint Race confounding vastly more experienced rivals.

On the commercial side, A1 Team Ireland has been courting potential sponsors in Ireland and beyond since the team's entry into the A1 Grand Prix series was announced. With steadily improving media coverage for the series world-wide, impressive support from the domestic media in Ireland and strong performances on the track, the team is hopeful of securing sponsorship as it moves into the second leg of the series commencing in Indonesia in January. With a new member of the team is Michael Jones who, until October this year, was Head of New Business for Midland Formula One, formerly Jordan Grand Prix, where he worked for four and a half years. He takes responsibility for sponsorship acquisition for A1 Team Ireland, working closely with Mark Gallagher, himself a former Head of Marketing at Jordan.

A1 Team Ireland is looking forward to the challenge of the 5.39kms Dubai Autodrome next weekend and team engineer Andy Miller has been analysing the track layout and evaluating likely set-ups. Mark Gallagher has visited the circuit, spending three days visiting the Dubai track and meeting circuit owners Union Properties back in 2004.

"It is a very impressive facility with a two fast straights and some low to medium speed turns which offer a good challenge," says Gallagher. "It's got a smooth surface and you notice the amount of detail that has gone into making it challenging, including some adverse camber corners and a large number of different circuit configurations. The paddock facilities are very good, and the grandstand and circuit offices and media centre are excellent. I have no doubt this is going to be a very special event because of the significance of it being Sheikh Maktoum's home race, and it is particularly exciting to see that the race has attracted the royal patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's Crown Prince and UAE Defence Minister."

The first 100 Irish fans attending the Dubai race will be able to enter free of charge if they wear appropriate colours to support A1 Team Ireland, the large ex-pat Irish population in the Emirate certain to give the team loud support. So far Irish fans have been giving the team terrific support wherever it goes, and a new A1 Team Ireland Fan Club has now been launched.