Bizarre F1 rival emerges as new ‘world championship’ launched

An all-new ‘World Championship’ seemingly designed to rival Formula 1 is set to be launched in the coming years.

That’s the audacious claim of the World Motorsport Confederation, a Serbian-based non-profit organisation clearly intended to rival the FIA.

Formula World Championship takes aim at Formula 1

The all-new competition has been titled the Formula World Championship for Drivers.

It will run under the auspices of the World Motorsport Confederation (WMC) as Formula 1 does the FIA.

According to a press release sent to PlanetF1.com, “the WMC sets the standard as the highest rank in Formula racing, strictly adhering to WMC Technical and Sporting Regulations.”

Events will be termed ‘Grand Trophy’ races, with 17 slated to take place annually, the competition touching every continent on Earth – a bold statement indeed.

“Each Grand Trophy event spans four days, from Thursday to Sunday, with the inaugural WMC Formula World Championship set to launch within the next 2-3 years,” the statement proclaimed.

The competition will boast 28 cars across 14 teams, all using a spec ‘WMC Formula’ car designed and manufactured by the category’s commercial rights holder, Formula Race Management.

Cars will weigh 650kg and be powered by an unspecified naturally aspirated engine capable of 850bhp. It plans to use synthetic fuel “as part of the WMC’s unwavering commitment to the Green Agenda, aiming for complete carbon neutrality by the year 2030.”

The World Motorsport Confederation is a non-profit based in Belgrade, Serbia.

According to its press material, it was established in 2021 and is “dedicated to advancing the sport.”

In the four years since its founding, nothing has been heard of the body, while its website presents nothing more than a logo and an email address.

When contacted by PlanetF1.com, a spokesperson for WMC was unwilling to offer further details surrounding the organisation’s activity over the past four years, or its ability to finance such a venture.

Investigations by this writer revealed the WMC website was registered by the Partizan Car Club (Auto Club Partizan), which has been active since 2013 with one Bosko Milovanovic listed as its director. Curiously, Zoran Stefanovic is listed as a former owner, selling the entity in February 2023. Stefanovic is president of the WMC.

Curiously, there are records for a company named ‘Federacija Motornog Sporta’, or Motor Sports Federation in English, founded in 2013 with Stefanovic listed as its owner.

The Federacija Motornog Sporta boasts a website of strikingly similar design to both the WMC and Partizan Car Club, albeit with slightly more detail, but seemingly abandoned in late 2015. It’s registered address is the same as both WMC and the Partizan Car Club, which is also the same as the FK Partizan football club, which plays in the Serbian SuperLiga.

Asked about the apparent connection, which is a matter of record on publicly available registers, a WMC spokesperson denied it, insisting that both the Auto Klub Partizan and Mr Milovanovic have “nothing to do with WMC.”

It is worth noting, the FIA-aligned governing body in Serbia is the Auto-Moto Association of Serbia (AMSS).

Nonetheless, the WMC have named Enrique Scalabroni as the chief technical officer of both WMC and Formula Race Limited – which is also based out of Belgrade.

Scalabroni spent time with Williams in the mid-1980s before moving to Ferrari at the end of the decade before switching to Lotus in the early 1990s. Thereafter he moved into sportscars before returning to Williams as a consultant in 1998.

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Stefanovic, meanwhile, has never formally had a role in Formula 1, though is infamous within the paddock. He has, on multiple occasions, attempted to launch a new team, most notably Stefan Grand Prix.

Followed the collapse of Peter Windsor’s ill-fated USF1 effort ahead of the 2010 season, Stefanovic attempted to take the squad’s place having had his application rejected the previous year.

Then, he’d secured the rights to Toyota’s chassis, gearbox, and 2010-spec engine after the Japanese company withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of 2009. Despite that, an entry was not forthcoming and despite some very public posturing and grandstanding, nothing came of the operation.

A year later, he was one of 15 operations to submit an entry to the FIA when the selection process for a new team opened in 2011 with a view to a berth on the grid for 2015. That, too, came to nothing.

In 2017, he announced again his intent to enter F1, claiming he had a facility and staff ready and waiting.

Curiously, Stefanovic was not among those to register an expression of interest when the process opened that ultimately led to Cadillac (nee Andretti) being granted admission for next year, suggesting perhaps the Serbian businessman has finally given up hope.

Instead, the organisation he presides over has announced a competition clearly designed to rival Formula 1, a competition (and business) which has experienced a sonic boom in recent years.

To describe the task ahead of the World Motorsport Confederation as a tall order would therefore seem a significant understatement.

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