Mosley dismisses GPWC threat

Mosley believes that the threat of a rival championship to Formula 1, as proposed by the GPWC, will disappear by 2008 because there isn't enough investment to sustain two rival series. This despite the perception of a growing division in the sport, with the FIA and Ferrari on one side and the other nine teams on the opposing side.

The GPWC's remaining founders Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Renault, along with Honda and Toyota, released a statement earlier this week outlining their vision for the future of the sport. But despite the GPWC's avowed intention to push ahead with plans to create a more entertaining and more commercially viable rival series to F1, Mosley remains unmoved.

"The reality of all this is not going to really matter until about three years and six weeks from now, that's when the first race in 2008 is going to happen," Mosley said after today's F1 team meeting at the Hilton Hotel at London's Heathrow, attended only by Ferrari. "At the moment it is very easy for people to huff and puff and take position, because they don't actually have to do anything.

"When it comes to it people have to make their minds up if they want to be in the championship, but they don't really have to do anything for three years. They know that, so it is very easy to be polarised and take dramatic positions, but in the end, they'll all be there in Melbourne in 2008. It will all sort itself out."

Mosley suggested that event organisers and TV companies would not be prepared to foot the bill for two rival championships and would play the GPWC and Formula 1 World Championship off against one another.

"The money given to the teams would have to be financed from somewhere," he explained, "and the only way that could happen is if the big motor companies all put the money in a pool - hundreds and hundred of millions of dollars. You add up what they would be committed to paying, it would be cheaper to go and buy 75 per cent of Bernie's company [SLEC] from the banks.

"And as Bernie has his contracts in place and he also holds the rights to the Formula 1 World Championship, he starts off in a strong position and during the next three years all these people will come together. It's just absolutely inevitable.

"Sometime between now and 2008, that whole GPWC and Bernie commercial negotiation, which is none of our business, will get sorted out and it will be one group of people. And the clever ones will have had their input into the 2008 regulations, and the less clever ones will not, but there will be only one championship because there simply isn't the money for two."