Automotive Forums

Toyota, BAR-Honda, Renault, McLaren-Mercedes, BMW Williams and Minardi have all signed a memorandum of understanding with the Grand Prix World Championship.

Money is going to be distributed according to status and results.  A GPWC statement said all manufacturers and participants fully endorsed governing principles published last month.  

It seems the GPWC has reached a very interesting stalemate.  Ferrari just signed an "agreement" with the FIA to remain in the current F1 series for several more years, of course for a premium amount of money.  This of course greatly displeased the other members of the GPWC as Ferrari's participation was their strongest point of leverage for negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA for getting a bigger piece of the F1 pie.  There is no F1 without Ferrari. But now with Ferrari committing to stay in F1, the GPWC has lost a lot of their clout.  BUT, I think although F1 wouldn't be F1 without Ferrari, neither would F1 be F1 if it was just Ferrari and a bunch of nobodies.  In the end, if I had to choose, I'd rather watch BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Renault battling it out with some close racing than a Ferrari dominated car parade.  And with the current resurgence of Renault (leading the 2005 F1 championship big time), and the loss in form of Ferrari, the GPWC still has the upperhand in my opinion.  

The GPWC sounds like a better ideal than the F1, but interviews with Ron Dennis(McLaren), David Richards(BAR) and Paul Stoddard(Minardi) have indicated that they are keeping their options open for the meantime. Maybe there are some changes in the way that wealth is distributed within the F1 community in the pipeline.
I have to admit though, the idea of there being all year round racing of F1 calibre does sound quite appealing.