BMW has called an emergency press conference today where the company is apparently going to announce its withdrawal from F1 at the end of the year:
autosport.com - F1 News: F1 braced for BMW exit announcement
BMW has called an emergency press conference today where the company is apparently going to announce its withdrawal from F1 at the end of the year:
autosport.com - F1 News: F1 braced for BMW exit announcement
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
Nooo.... the KERS rejection must have hit too hard....
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They were doing pretty well until this year too.
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I think it would be great if the manufacturers got step back and return to their engine supplying role. Toyota already serves Williams and Renault Red Bull. BMW could easily supply engines next year to one of the new or existing teams teams and make money doing it.
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
It's official...
BMW Sauber F1 Team - Website
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Hmmm, I wonder what this means in terms of politics.
I believe it's too late for other teams to be accepted as official entries...
Max Mosley was proven right in his attempts to induce a cost-cap, although BMW will leave even now that the cost-cap is about to be signe.
I wonder if they will face legal actions from FOM, since I believe that they have commited to stay in the sport until 2012. At least they haven't signed the new Concorde Agreement..
Minimising losses can maximise net gains
Well the team may not necessarily disappear. Perhaps they can continue as Sauber (BMW) in 2010. They still used the old Hinwill based Sauber factory. It might be cheaper to hand Peter Sauber his team back than to fire all employees. The engines are basically sealed so they need no development and can be manufactured relatively cheaply.
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
So far the official statement..Originally Posted by BMW Press Release
More and more companies are quitting. F1 is gonna be soooo boring next year...
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Fota has expressed its intention to help save the team:
autosport.com - F1 News: FOTA vows to help save BMW Sauber
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
...who quited apart from them?
I agree with Wouter, less involvement of the manufacturers could be a good thing.
Brawn and RBR, or even STR last year, proved that there is no need of car maker behind the scene (even if Brawn's pace is decreasing now that money for development is required, but RBR money << Honda money, so I still stand correctly, I think).
Just my guess: beack in the nineties when car makers were baking teams only with sponsorships and engines, the level of the costs was established by how much money sponsors were about to pay. Each team had to gain something at the end of the season, so to survive, and to gain even more so to develop a good car for the following year. So there was a tighter relationship between money and performance.
Maybe Ferrari was a bit immune from this, or maybe for them things never change after all, Marlboro always payed big money for the contract as far as I can remember.
Btw, now that car makers are directly involved, they aren't aiming to gain money out of F1, but rather out of the brand's image being built trough F1, so there isn't a direct need to gain as much money (if not more) as those being spent during the same year, and therefore the level of costs is related to how many ad they are making out of F1, and not to the performance achieved.
Even if it's correct to state that winning (so a good performance) would be the best ad, Toyota is there to prove us there is much more than winning in their interest, or at least it used to be when the economic situation was better than now, which led to Honda and BMW to step down, but only now, after many years of poor results, especially compared to the costs.
With privateers running the game I think the costs will be more tied up with the results, and this could sort of auto regulate the level of the former.
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I love FIA's statement in "not surprised" by the quitting of BMW...more chances to shove the our cost cutting is better down everyone's throat.
Fact is, 2009's the budget was probably higher than 2008s, with the unnecessary cost of KERS, a complete redesign of rules and redesign again mid season for the lousy DDD(down to poor rule making), add to the fact that for them, they have not been performing well at all(and thats a very relative term because, the "poor" performance now is 1.5 sec from the top, vs back in old days that would be 3-4 sec), they are just not getting the return for spending all the extra cash.....rule stability is paramount for something like a manufacturer to embrace(we are talking about people who make their product on a 4-6 years life cycle...), add to the fact that the history of years of shady business practice by FOM, it's hard to justify for companies to accept being played around constantly like this....and thats why you have FOTA in the first place....
Maybe Sauber can get his team back, the cost should be lower in 2010 anyway, the question is if BMW will keep the team afloat like Honda did...
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
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Indeed, the FIA statement is rather peculiar. The FIA did try to cap costs, but for the 2009-2010 season. This would make no difference to the BMW decision.
BMW decision was down to poor results for the money invested. The poor results were a factor of the double diffuser and KERS, both FIA sanctioned.
Minimising losses can maximise net gains
I wouldve expected to see Renault or Toyota leave before BMW, but the 3 of them have all been mentioned as being on shaky grounds since Honda pulled out.
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