Max - "And then there were four!"

f1.redbaron · Post 14 Aug 2006, 20:14

Looks like Toyota is out of GPMA:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17310.html

Tom · Post 14 Aug 2006, 20:17

Seems a biased report, to say the least.

m3_lover · Post 15 Aug 2006, 04:42

No offense but what a stupid move by Toyota, this makes the GPMA lose there creditibility and there stance against the FIA, I smell a inside deal.

DaveKillens · Post 15 Aug 2006, 04:44

Toyota is painting it withdrawal as being in order not to inhibit the other members on their latest strategic plan to contain the FIA
WTF does that mean? Is Toyota sympathetic to the other big name members? If so, it would suit Toyota to lend their considerable weight to the GPMA.
That's a very weird, biased article. it gives the impression Renault are not a member of the GPMA, which they currently are.

Ciro Pabón · Post 15 Aug 2006, 11:15

Well, Principessa reports the same, based on no one else that Toyota itself.

There are other "very opinionated" reports that the CVC (the owner of FIA majority shares) wants to float a bond based on future income. This cannot be done until the GPMA-FOM technical agreement is signed. Toyota has stated that they are against the engine freeze.

Then you have the idea that FOA has almost cancelled the "Bernie bond", it may have one billion stashed away in the bank, and it is about to distribute it to major shareholders.

I wonder

if this money is behind pressures to speed up the technical agreement... the communiqué goes the extra mile to prove that Toyota is here to stay.

The issue of future incomes is solved on paper, but the TV audience decays. Mr. Ecclestone statements about more entertainement needed on track gives you the sensation that the "disneyfication" is about to be completed.

f1.redbaron · Post 15 Aug 2006, 20:14

Toyota's explanation was that they think that GPMA had achieved their goals. To me, this doesn't make any sense. Max is changing the rule, and it seems that GPMA was powerless to stop him.

My impression is that GPMA's reason for existence was justifiable, but somewhere down the road, it took a wrong turn. The teams were not speaking in one voice - each had different thoughts on what should be and what shouldn't be allowed.

Now it seems as though the only purpose of GPMA is to get a better deal from Bernie.

Ciro Pabón · Post 15 Aug 2006, 21:50

f1.redbaron wrote:Now it seems as though the only purpose of GPMA is to get a better deal from Bernie.

Well, yes. It was. It seems there are only a few technical wrinkles left to iron and the GPMA will disappear, for the moment. Now the business has two owners: the Ecclestones and the auto-makers.

Toyota is saying "clearly" that, now this is settled, they have to focus on something "important", like waiting a few more years for Half Schumacher to win a GP.