FEBRUARY 18, 2004

The weak point of the GPWC

The announcement that Jurgen Hubbert is to retire as head of Mercedes-Benz next year is not really a surprise as he was too old to be considered a contender for the job as the boss of DaimlerChrysler. What will be interesting will be to see whether or not Hubbert's departure will have a major effect on the much-vaunted GPWC which he was so keen to promote.

There is no doubt that the GPWC will take a knock when Hubbert departs but what has not yet been discussed is whether or not there will be a second hit when Carlos Ghosn takes control at Renault.

It is no secret that Ghosn and Renault F1 chairman Patrick Faure were at one point rivals for the top job at Renault. Ghosn got it and it is hard to imagine that Faure, who is now 57, is going to be happy working for Ghosn when he arrives at Renault in the Spring of 2005.

Faure is another of the pillars of the GPWC and so it may be that both Hubbert and Faure will disappear within months of one another. This will mean that only one of the original GPWC principals (Burkhard Goeschel) is still in place, just two years after the idea was launched.