Organizers of the A1 GP series, which gets underway at Zandvoort this weekend, issued the following statement this afternoon:

"A1GP World Cup of Motorsport remains committed to switching to a 30 per cent bio-ethanol fuel mix despite technical issues which have delayed its introduction to the 22 A1GP race cars.

While the E30 fuel mix has been successfully tested over a total of 4,600 kilometres at Silverstone and Snetterton in the UK, the project's technical team, consisting of experts from A1GP, engine suppliers Zytek and fuel provider PetroChem Carless remain unconvinced that the fuel blend will continue to give the required engine performance over a more sustained period of time.

A1GP has therefore reluctantly reverted to its regular race 102 octane fuel while further development and testing work continues to rectify the situation with the intention of introducing bio-fuels to all A1GP race cars as quickly as possible.

A1GP's chief executive officer, Pete da Silva said: 'It is highly regrettable that we have not been able to start A1GP's third season running on our planned bio-fuel mix. We have undertaken 4,600 kilometres of testing which has already successfully demonstrated that an international race series can remain exciting and competitive while also taking account of its environmental impact. However, we must ensure that the long term impact of our fuel change does not impact on our on-track action.

The launch of our THINK Greener Racing policy at Silverstone last month was warmly accepted by the industry and key environmental leaders and remains at the centre of our business strategy moving forward."