FEBRUARY 23, 2003

Toyota about the join the GPWC?

The Sunday Times is reporting - presumably from a leaK - that Toyota is on the verge of joining the GPWC, a move which would strengthen the stretched credibility of the manufacturers' organisation which is supposed to be running its own championship in 2008. This is fine if there is an agreement in place between the GPWC and the FIA but at the moment there is no sign that such an accord will be reached as the FIA has made it clear that it does not think that the manufacturers are the right people to control the commercial side of the sport and as the GPWC has said it wants a regulator other than the FIA there is currently an impasse in negotiations. There is also considerable discord amongst the GPWC. This was highlighted recently by the reactions to the FIA's reintretation of the F1 rules when the GPWC put out a statement saying it condemned the changes but then most of the teams came out in favour of the changes.