British Teams in Formula One Takeover Bid

Five British-based Formula One teams have formed a company called GPT Ltd in a bid to wrestle control of the sport from Bernie Ecclestone, according to a report in The Times newspaper.

McLaren, Williams, Jordan, Arrows and BAR have created the new company and plan to buy a stake in Ecclestone's Formula One empire by purchasing shares from the collapsed Kirch Group.

The teams want a say in how the sport is run and long-term control over the future of Formula One and have appointed Neil Johnson, 53, a former marketing director at Jaguar to run the operation.

"We have had this downward spiral in the reputation of Formula One," Johnson told The Times. "Last Sunday might have been the seminal moment. We have to find a way of putting Formula One back where it used to be.

"There has been a concern that Formula One has not been managed well and things are out of control - even on the track things have been getting repetitive and boring - and that has reached such a pitch that everybody realises something has to change.

"There is too much secrecy. There was a time when that was probably quite beguiling, but it is not business reality.

"Everybody around this piece, including Bernie, keeps saying that we need this business run by business-men, but serious businessmen won't come near anything shrouded in the mists of closed deals that Formula One currently is.

"Bernie has done a fantastic job, but that isn't the point anymore. We have an asset called Formula One, the value of which is - in the pessimistic view - degenerating by the race at the moment."

He added: "There is a real will for the teams to sort this out, not least because it is a matter of self-preservation. If Formula One disintegrates into chaos, what are they going to do? Formula One is fundamental to their future."

Ecclestone sold 75 per cent of SLEC, the company which holds the commercial rights to the sport, to the Kirch group last year but the German media company went bankrupt earlier this year.

The move to sell to Kirch angered the big manufacturers and Fiat, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Renault are already in talks to set up a rival series in 2008 under the banner of GPWC.