Mercedes boss Juergen Hubbert is the new chief executive of the company set up by Formula One car manufacturers to plan for a possible new Grand Prix series in 2008.

The head of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes car division replaces Paolo Cantarella, who resigned as chairman of GPWC Holdings earlier this month.

GPWC also said that Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo would represent Italian company Fiat as a director of the Dutch-registered company.

Ford's Richard Parry-Jones has replaced former Jaguar boss Wolfgang Reitzle after he quit the carmaker for a new position in Germany in May.

GPWC said its five-man board now consisted of:

• Hubbert
• Burkhard Goeschel (BMW)
• Montezemolo
• Parry-Jones
• Patrick Faure (Renault)

GPWC said the next meeting with all Formula One principals would be held in early July.

The existing agreement between teams and the holders of Formula One's commercial rights expires in 2007.

And the major carmakers want to set up their own championship on expiry, if not before.

The Kirch Beteiligung unit of the German Kirch media empire, which controls the commercial rights to Formula One, filed for insolvency last week.

Kirch's creditors have already begun negotiations with the carmakers to try and offload the shares in the Formula One holding SLEC.

But Hubbert said in April that it would only make sense for the carmakers to buy into SLEC if their demands were met.

These include guaranteed free-to-air television, control of the revenues and a say in fixtures and venues.