Grand Prix World Championship

The Grand Prix World Championship, often abbreviated to GPWC, was a proposed alternative world championship auto racing series to rival Formula One. GPWC has been superseded by the Grand Prix Manufacturers’ Association.

GPWC Holdings consisted of (and GPMA originally consisted of) Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Renault, Honda and Toyota, five of F1's biggest players. The GPWC was created as a tool to assist the companies in bargaining with Bernie Ecclestone for an agreeable extension to the 1997 Concorde Agreement, the contract by whose terms the teams compete in F1.

Though the GPWC created definite plans to start a rival series in 2004, its future was cast into doubt in mid-January 2005 when Ferrari, FIAT's F1 team, announced its having come to terms with Ecclestone and signed an extension to the Concorde Agreement. Ecclestone expressed his expectation that the remaining teams would shortly follow suit. However, at around the same time Honda and Toyota showed interest in working together with GPWC.