The whole point about A1GP is that it comprises national teams racing for their country's honour. But several teams are run by experienced leaders - and that means, mostly, European or Australian - with English outfits running several of the leading teams. It also means that teams have to find local drivers.
And here, says Cunningham, is where A1GP has run into its first problem. A1GP cars are fast: they are similar in performance to Formula One cars of only a few years ago. There are very few drivers in the world who can drive a car of that power and performance.
And, with Alex Yoong out of the team, and focusing on the new Lotus team, that leaves Malaysia with precisely one capable driver: the very talented Fairus Fauzy. But Fairus is under contract to race in the World Series by Renault. That means that any clash in fixtures means Malaysia's A1GP team will be sans pilot.
But there are other issues, says Cunningham. Like the question mark over the continuation of the series. This, he says, is worrying sponsors. For Proton, the collapse of the series would, ironically, be possibly good news. The money they have committed to the team will be welcome at their new Lotus unit. And so, one suspects, would the expertise A1GP Team Malaysia has built up. It's a ready-made pit crew that already gels as a team. For Alex Yoong, rumoured to be Lotus team principal in waiting after Tony Fernandez of Air Asia gets the deserved kudos for getting the team to its first race, this would be an absolute boon.
Cunningham is right to fear for the A1GP series: one of the reasons he can't field an alternate driver is that the cars are not owned by the teams but by A1GP Operations Limited - but that went into administration in June. A1GP Holdings has claimed that it is entitled to the cars in lieu of funds it is owed. But A1GP Operations owes lots of money to lots of people - including its staff who have continued to work unpaid for some time.
So the cars are in a compound owned by shipping company DOT which says they are going nowhere until bills are paid. And there are rumours that Ferrari has insisted that it gets paid all outstanding moneys - and that A1GP remove its name and logo from all materials.
The state of the series finances has been an open sore for some weeks. In September, A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira said that the series had secured long-term funding and that it would pay all of its creditors before a liquidation hearing on 6th October.
But 6th October came and went. The last update on the website was 5th October.And as of today, all the Ferrari notes are still there.
The last media release we received from the very efficient A1GP press office was 22 September.
If A1GP does die, it will be the second casualty this year. The truly awful "Speedcar" series that turned out cars that looked like cardboard boxes in a series of dull processions has also collapsed.
A story dated 7th October in a little-known blog says that equipment and tyres were being shipped to Australia. Quoting A1GP General Manager Paul Cherry, the blog says that the cars were in containers at Stansted ready to be shipped with more equipment ready to follow. But the Australian source of that story has no update - including whether the equipment has arrived.
Strangely, we have not found a report of the hearing scheduled for 6th October and so the current position of the company is, at least to us, totally unclear.
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