A1 Team France heads to the ninth round of the A1GP season at Mexico's Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigues with a new driver at the wheel as it bids to improve on its current third place in the overall championship. The new driver is 19-year-old Jean-Karl Vernay, one of the drivers from the France FFSA filière, who will drive in the rookie session as well as the rest of the weekend as Loic Duval is testing with the Honda NSX of Nakajima team in the Japan Super GT 500 series.

Jean-Karl Vernay said: "I have no experience of the car. I have not seen an A1 car yet. I have not touched one of these cars and I have never driven in Mexico either, so it will be something of an exploration. The track looks quite bumpy from what I've seen on TV, but there's no reason to panic. I'll be working hard to adapt quickly and help the team bring home a lot more points and improve its standing. I can't wait to be in Mexico and hopefully I can match Alexandre Prémat's excellent results from last year in Mexico."

Team Manager Eric Boullier commented, "A1 Team France heads to Mexico with Jean-Karl Vernay, a young driver with a solid record. It will be a challenging weekend ahead but we will use all our valuable experience from last year to progress quickly. The track is quite bumpy so we will have to find a good set up and it's always interesting to have a new driver on board."