By Site Staff (24/02/03)
February 24 2003

Toyota in the Grand Prix World Championship ? According to the Sunday Times newspaper the team are very much considering it. The alternative championship series, set up by leading car manufacturers, is planned to run from 2008 onwards. 2007 is the last year that the Concorde Agreement is valid for. Currently the GPWC is made up of Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Ford and Renault. Toyota will make a powerful addition if it decides to join the breakaway series.

Speaking to the British newspaper on the subject, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, accused F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone of putting his greed first rather than the future success of the sport. The Italian also indicated that the car manufacturers making up the GPWC are unhappy that over 70% of the revenue generated by F1 ends up in the vaults of corporate banks.

"Bernie has done an excellent job transforming F1 but he has now dramatically changed the picture. It's his biggest mistake. He wanted too much for himself. As a manager he got more [revenue] than the teams because he was good, but now the car manufacturers are not prepared to fund the banks."

At the time of writting there has been no official comment from the team on the article in the British newspaper.