GPWC breakaway series

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BebiF1

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Interpreted as a bid to pile the pressure on F1 impresario Bernie Ecclestone, GPWC - headed by five competing F1 manufacturers - is principally designed to keep more than half a billion dollars in the teams' pockets.

Jean Todt, Ron Dennis, David Richards, Frank Williams, Peter Sauber, Eddie Jordan, Flavio Briatore, Richard Parry-Jones, Paul Stoddart and Ove Andersson all put their pens to the document.

Speculation suggests that the smaller operations, like Jordan, Sauber and Minardi, were promised subsidised customer engine deals under the GPWC structure.

BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ferrari, Ford and Renault formed GPWC in late 2001 as an alternate racing series to Formula One, to kick off 'no later than' 2008.

But analysts insisted that it's primary function was as a warning to Formula One bigwigs that the manufacturers, and associated teams, wanted a more transparent sport with more revenue within the existing F1 framework.

A GPWC statement read, 'The meeting was part of an ongoing development process and represents a key step for GPWC and the formula one teams towards realising their common goals.'

One analyst describes GPWC as a strong 'negotiating tool' to get Bernie Ecclestone at his desk and working on a new, and more lucrative (for the teams) Concorde Agreement.

GPWC outlines it's 'goals' as achieving long-term stability for the sport, significantly increasing team payments and creating a more transparent commercial environment.

The alternate championship has invited FIA President Max Mosley and Ecclestone to a subsequent meeting to update the F1 bosses on the 'details' of yesterday's Munich congregation.

Interestingly, though, Bernie Ecclestone wasn't far away as his Formula One team bosses signed the document to be forthwith known as the 'Munich agreement.'

The 72-year-old was also in Germany (Stuttgart) for a meeting with Jurgen Hubbert, director of DaimlerChrysler (Mercedes), for what experts are calling 'compromise talks.'

None of the ten F1 team bosses were available for comment after the Munich meeting.

www.F1i.com
 
It'll never happen...Bernie has how many years left in him?...and I'm sure someone involved in this break away seriers will take over his position.

I hope.
 
F1 needs radical changes to get that contract renewed in 2008. needs to be right up there as common names like Nascar. Could a breakaway happen, yes. will it happen, probably. Teams signed that agreement to show that they want changes, and want a better sport than what it is right now. They are uninamous so that means there will be no arguing over when it will happen, but how and how to go from there.
 
mabey I don't understand why the yare so unhappy, what are they going to make this into? will it just be f1 cars with different rules?
 
I personally don't like the idea mainly because it reminds me of CART and IRL. I really don't like that there is a clear group of people who only like one or the other and they go on and on about which is better etc...

F1 is the pinnacle of Motor Sport and should stand as one.
 
I agree with Tiger. But one problem that i forgot to discuss was that auto racing is a sport, but lately with money crisis all over the world F1 as well as even CART have become more about the business. Many sponsers want to get their name on a winning car or they quit. The FIA is trying to get F1 back into a sport, about the racing and not have the money discussion every week.
 
It's true, it's all about money. But, having said that, there's so much more to it; namely POWER. The power to make the rules. The power to create stability. The power to respect tradition. The power to not turn the sport into Crapula 1, as Max is currently intent on doing. It's the power to be able to afford to keep the sport alive as a sport and not merely entertainment geared toward the lowest common denomiator. The history of the sport has never been common or lowly.

Nothing is hurting the sport more than the current situation. It's the current situation/power struggle that brought about the GPWC. Max should've seen the light and realized that he's the one creating the problems.

Should the GPWC come to be, it will become the pinnacle of auto racing. F1 will still remain, but only as an also-ran, spec series, owned by Bernie and made up of former CART cars and teams.

The question is, does the FIA want to be relevant and have a say in the operation of the premiere racing series on the planet?
 
Who knows what will happen. We got several years before anything can come to pass. If there was a breakaway series both F1 and the GPWC will both go down the tube. There cant be two sports competing for the title of pinnacle of motorsports and both will lose money, just like CART and IRL have.
 
Originally posted by BebiF1@Apr 19 2003, 04:20 AM
Who knows what will happen. We got several years before anything can come to pass. If there was a breakaway series both F1 and the GPWC will both go down the tube. There cant be two sports competing for the title of pinnacle of motorsports and both will lose money, just like CART and IRL have.
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That's right!!

Yes it's about money mostly...but money makes the world go round.

What they need to do is find a balance, I know you can't keep everyone happy, but I'm very sure each can make compromises and changes.

I guess one good sign is that they have pushed it back til '08, as it was '06 they planned to make this serious, I think mainly due to this being the year ciggies can't be advertised in F1.
 
well the contract the FIA has with F1 ends in 2008 which would seem like the year to start a new series and just leave F1 as the past and have it no longer running. But they are talking more and more of just starting sooner and hope F1 loses teams and money and goes bankrupt.
 
What will happen is if the GPWC does go ahead is we will see a major split. And we will see F3000 teams running F1 cars :p But who will supply the Engines? Mugen? Zytek? Nissan? Chrysler? If it happens it will cripple F1. Will it happen? All depends, if the racing continues to be like it has been so far in 2003 then I would say no it wont. If crowd sizes go down, and TV rating's go down then yes Id say it will happen, but I dont think that will happen. The FIA needs to look after the manufacturers more if u ask me.
 
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