bungle in the supply of spare parts to A1GP teams prior to Round Two of the series which begins at the Goldenport Circuit in Chengdu, China today will see Aaron Lim taking a more cautious approach as he flags off the defence of A1 Team Malaysia’s championship lead.

All teams will have to do without sufficient replacement parts for much of their Ferrari cars, leaving a rather tricky situation in the planning of strategies ahead of the weekend.

“I’d have preferred to be able to go all out, put the car to the limit in order to provide better input for Fairuz to take into the races. But this is now a risk that I can’t take.

“We have insufficient spares due to some unavoidable circumstances, but this is the same for everybody. A lot of cars are not really ready for this we e k e n d .

“In my case, we’ll have to wait till Sepang before I can see what the car can really do,” said Aaron, 21, when contacted.

Aaron said the teams had been informed that the spare parts issue would be rectified by the next round at the Sepang Circuit on Sept 21-23, leaving a lot of guessing to be done for this round, especially should it consequently bring about an indirect reliability test of the new identical Ferrari machines used by all teams.

The rookie session at 11am today will see Aaron getting his first taste on board the Ferrari car.

The session, as it is under the new regulations, is now a vital part of preparations ahead of the weekend and the youngster does feel a bit of pressure, more so with the knowledge that he has to be more than just Fair uz’s understudy this time around.

“Of course. We’re leading the championship, so there is some pressure.

But I’m also excited about my first chance to really drive the car.

“Despite the handicap of having to hold back a little, I have to make sure I can give the team as much data as they need, more so on gear ratios and aerodynamic settings so that Fairuz has all the advantages he can have when he takes over,” said Aaron.

Fairuz takes over for his first drive around the Goldenport Circuit, which hosts the A1GP for the first time, at 2pm, sufficient time for the team to learn of the requirements and set up the car for Fairuz to start his weekend in the first free practice session.

A1 Team Malaysia, who share the championship lead on 22 points with France, will be looking to make all their advantages, mainly in being amongthe earliest teams to find their footing with the new Ferrari cars, count.