Team Ireland's Mark Gallagher (right) has revealed that following a frustrating start to the second season of A1 GP, the team discovered a problem with its car.

"The results in the opening two races were unusual because we were significantly off the pace and unable to close the gap to become anything like a threat to the leading teams," said admitted Gallagher. "It was also noticeable that, in the wet conditions during the race in Holland we were a lot more competitive, which suggested some degree of chassis flexing or movement.

"Thanks to the support from A1GP and Lola International however, we have been able to pinpoint problems and we will know during Friday practice in Beijing to what extent we have closed the performance gap."

"It's sometimes the case that even a new chassis can develop problems and I've seen it in Formula 3 before," added driver John O'Hara. "Hopefully the work that was done to the car back in England and then having it fully rebuilt will give us a step in performance and hopefully we'll be able to start making the right kind of progress with the set-up.

"It was good that the team secured A1GP's agreement to have the car fully checked out and also that they found some issues," added the team's 'lead' driver, Michael Devaney. "It would have been more of a worry if it had been found to be perfect!"