The carmakers' plan to leave Formula One and start their own Grand Prix racing series doesn't quite cut it with Karl Ludvigsen. The football-backed Premier1 series, however, might just well succeed, he says. Here's why

Are you as turned off as I am by all this to-ing and fro-ing about the carmakers taking over Formula One in 2008? I can barely begin to think about it, let alone write about it. But it has so intruded on our appreciation of our favorite sport that it's a topic that just can't be avoided.

The latest substantive development was the announcement at 4:54 p.m. Turin time on Tuesday, November 27th, that the interested car makers had set up a Dutch company to administer the new racing series that they plan to bring into being "not later than January 1st, 2008." They are naming it GPWC Holding B.V., an acronym that easily reveals itself as "Grand Prix World Championship." The founding manufacturers are Fiat, Ford (Jaguar), Renault, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Among them they are the engine suppliers to seven of the 12 teams on the 2002 grid (Prost's engine supplier is uncertain).

Their move, which was announced from Turin by Fiat, followed a statement issued by Mercedes-Benz earlier in November. The board of directors is similar to the one mooted in the November announcement, except that Fiat chief Paolo Cantarella will be on the board instead of Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo. Luca, in my view, is shrewdly staying out of the main line of fire. Cantarella will be chairman and Jurgen Hubbert of DaimlerChrysler is vice-chairman (as if they needed such a top-heavy structure). The other firms are represented by Patrick Faure of Renault, Burkard Goeschel of BMW and Wolfgang Reitzle of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, which includes Jaguar.

The statement issued from Turin read: "They [the board] have met today the representatives of existing Formula One teams and have invited them to participate in the New Series. As soon as the New Series is launched, the above car manufacturers have agreed to use the New Series as their outlet for Grand Prix format racing and will terminate their participation in Formula One not later than January 1st, 2008." The end of 2007 sees the expiration of the present Concorde agreement among the teams that sets the framework of Formula One racing.

The Fiat-issued statement went on to say that GPWC Holding would "improve in a substantial way the financial benefits of the participating teams and guarantee absolute economic transparency." Transparency would be welcome; Concorde is famous for its obscurity. As to the benefits, the Holding would allow the parties to share in all the revenues from the sport: the TV rights, promoters' fees, track-side advertising, hospitality, merchandising, internet, etc. At the moment, Concorde allocates the teams a 47% share of TV revenues. A subsidiary of SLEC, the Ecclestone family trust which is 75% owned by pay-TV mogul Leo Kirsch, keeps the promoters' fees, which amount to about $200 million a year. Most of the track-side advertising and hospitality revenues go to Allsport, which is controlled by Paddy McNally. The merchandise revenues are kept by the teams.

Bernie Ecclestone, who has masterminded with great assurance and determination the global success of Formula One as a major sport, argues that the teams are wrong if they think they'd be better off under GPWC's management. "What they don't realize," he said, "is that the 50% the teams get from us would be more than the 100% they would get if they did their own thing." Of the car makers Ecclestone said, "It has taken them two years to agree to make a company that has nothing in it and they have made a lot of incorrect assumptions. People don't want to win an athletics meeting... they want to win the Olympics." If he's saying that there should be only one Formula One, the sport that has developed an awesome tradition over its more than 50 years, he's right.

At this point I'd like to comment on several aspects of the GPWC proposition. One is that a typically European "club" is being created. Fiat, Renault, BMW and Mercedes are good at this. For decades now the European auto makers have been ganging up against the Japanese and latterly the Koreans by forming their own alliances to seek help from the European Union at the expense of their Asian rivals. Now they are clubbing together again to fight what they perceive as a risk that the Kirsch-dominated SLEC will take Grand Prix racing to cable and satellite, making it pay-per-view and slashing the huge 350-million audience that they see as their right and privilege as backers of the sport.

The problem is that by setting up GPWC this way the Europeans are keeping the Orientals out. It's noteworthy that they've admitted Ford to their club; Ford and GM are regarded by the indigenous Europeans as being just as big a threat to them as the Japanese, so they're usually left out of any "clubs" they create. In Wolfgang Reitzle, of course, they have an acceptable European face at Ford, so that has made a difference. But Toyota and Honda are conspicuous by their absence from the club, although both qualify as major investors in Formula One. This must be a source of some concern to Cantarella and his co-conspirators. They certainly don't want them in GPWC, but at the same time the Japanese - and other potential Oriental entrants - could strengthen the case for a Formula One that could get along very well, thank you, after 2007 without the companies that are backing GPWC.

Another aspect is the manufacturers' participation itself. I just can't convince myself that it's here to stay. By 2008 people like Cantarella, Hubbert and Goeschel will have retired. Maybe they see GPWC as a game to play in their golden sunset years, but if that's so they are gambling that their companies will still want to be committed to Formula One so far in the future. That is not at all certain. Big car and engine makers have historically been fickle in their Formula One interests. Companies like Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Maserati, Talbot, Matra, Porsche, Lamborghini and Yamaha have come and gone from the sport as it suited them. Ford was long gone before its recent return and its transformation to Jaguar. Mercedes had a long gap before its rediscovery of Grand Prix racing. Who's to say it won't withdraw in a few years? I wouldn't want to bet against it.

While Ecclestone, Kirsch and Cantarella are squabbling amongst themselves, something is happening that could surprise and shock them all. I refer to Premier1 Grand Prix racing. In fact, Premier1 is benefiting from the intramural battles, which are keeping the major Formula One participants from spotting a new league that could harm them severely. I think Premier1 has potential. Its first two cars will be testing next April. By the end of 2002 Reynard will have delivered 50 cars to the series, which originally had planned to start racing that July. Its entries will be backed by, and associated with, some of the world's top football (soccer) clubs.

The Premier1 racers will be Formula One lookalikes with 750-horsepower engines, six-speed paddle-shift boxes and a minimum of driver aids. With Nick Wirth involved in the design, they will be professional-looking kit. There will be no refueling during the races, which will have pitstops for tire changes only. A race meeting will include two 100-mile or one-hour races separated by a 30-minute break. Saturday qualifying will set the 24-car field. Ten races are already scheduled through November of next year, some at well-known circuits such as Donington, Dijon, Buenos Aires and Zandvoort.

As long as enough football clubs get behind the series, I can't see it failing. And I haven't lost confidence in Premier1, even though they've just announced a postponement of their launch to March 2003. That will give them time to get more football clubs on board and line up a full season's circuits. The way things are going, Silverstone might be one of them, and that would be a real coup for Premier1.

There are also enough experienced racing teams to run the cars. As for drivers, if you were an Alex Wurz or Luca Badoer, wouldn't you rather be racing than driving around in circles in obscurity, no matter how well you're paid? There are plenty of capable and experienced racers who would like to take part. I hear, for example, that Brian Herta would like to get into European-style racing. Here's the series for him!

The real breakthrough would come if Premier1 could command a race at a great circuit. In America, for example, the IRL would have little going for it if it didn't have the Indy 500 as part of its portfolio. Premier1 needs a prize race - like Monaco - to give it glamour and a showcase for its sponsors. Are there any Mediterranean-side towns that would like to make their mark in the world of racing? Time for a comeback for San Remo? Or Naples' Posilipo circuit? Maybe it's time at last for Peter Ustinov's Grand Prix of Gibraltar!