DaimlerChrysler's Juergen Hubbert is playing a pivotal role

Paolo Cantarella, boss of Ferrari's owners Fiat, will be in charge of a new company called GPWC Holding BV that is being registered in Holland.

Juergen Hubbert of DaimlerChrysler, which owns Mercedes-Benz and 40% of the McLaren team, will be vice-chairman.

The remaining board members will be Patrick Faure of Renault, BMW's Burkhard Goeschel and Wolfgang Reitzle of Ford, which owns the Jaguar team.

The move increases the stakes in the ongoing negotiations over the future of the sport between Kirch, the manufacturers and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Manufacturers are worried that F1 would be shifted away from free-to-air television after the existing contracts between the teams and the sport run out in 2007.

Kirch is a major player in pay TV.

Financial guarantees

The car manufacturers want to ensure that their annual multi-million pound investment in F1 is value for money - which it can only be if the sport is shown on free-to-air TV.

Pay TV would mean that audiences would shrink dramatically.

A report in the Wall Street Journal Europe this week quoted sources close to the car manufacturers saying that Kirch had refused to guarantee F1 would be broadcast on free TV.

It also said that there had been no guarantee that the the manufacturers would receive a share of the broadcasting rights.

A press release issued by GPWC said it aimed to "improve in a substantial way the financial benefits of the participating teams and to guarantee absolute economic transparency".

For all the brinksmanship, Max Mosley - president of motorsport's governing body, the FIA - believes that there will be a compromise which gives the manufacturers a share in Slec.