Manufacturers reveal breakaway plans

The current Concorde Agreement governing F1 expires in 2007 and the board of the newly constituted Amsterdam-based GPWC holdings met on the eve of the season's first Grand Prix to agree policy objectives.

All board members were present - Burkhard Goschel of BMW, Jurgen Hubbert of Daimler-Chrysler, Ford's Wolfgang Reitzle and Renault's Patrick Faure as well as Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.

The GPWC has listed the aims of its project to be: 1) an adequate involvement of the manufacturers who make the championship possible, 2) suitable participation conditions for all the teams, especially from an economic point of view, 3) the stability of the championship, and 4) wide coverage of the TV audience (free-to-air TV).

According to GPWC the first meeting with F1 teams was held in November last year and there will be another in the summer in order to present them with detailed contractual and economic proposals.

GPWC says it has already established contact with 23 circuits and promoters in order to plan the championship and, that it has been approached by banks representing the Kirch Group.

Kirch, of course, owned 75 percent of Bernie Ecclestone's SLEC F1 holding company before being placed into administration recently. The GPWC board says it will "examine any proposal made by the banks, provided that it is consistent with its objectives."