BMW Sauber
Encyclopedia
BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

has been involved in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

in a number of capacities since the inauguration of the World Drivers' Championship in . The company entered occasional races in the 1950s and 1960s (often under Formula Two
Formula Two
Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...

 regulations), before building the BMW M12/13 inline-four turbocharged engine in the 1980s. This engine was the result of a deal between BMW and Brabham, which resulted in the team's chassis being powered by BMW engines from until , a period in which Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...

 won the championship driving a Brabham BT52
Brabham BT52
The Brabham BT52 was a Formula One car designed for the Brabham team by longtime Brabham designer Gordon Murray for the 1983 F1 season. The car ran on Michelin tyres...

-BMW. BMW also supplied the M12/13 on a customer basis to the ATS
ATS (wheels)
ATS was a German Formula One team, named after German alloy wheel brand Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör. The company is based in Bad Dürkheim near the Hockenheimring, its team was active in Formula One from 1977 to 1984.-Wheel manufacturer:...

, Arrows
Arrows
Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from to . For a period of time, it was also known as Footwork.-Origins :...

, Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...

 and Ligier
Ligier
For the related Formula One team, see Equipe LigierLigier is a French automobile maker created by former racing driver and rugby player Guy Ligier.-History:...

 teams during this period, with various degrees of success. In , Brabham temporarily withdrew from the sport and BMW withdrew its official backing from the engines, which were still used by the Arrows team under the Megatron
Megatron (engine)
The BMW M12/13 turbo 1500 cc 4-cylinder turbocharged Formula One engine, based on the standard BMW M10 engine introduced in 1961, powered the F1 cars of Brabham, Arrows and Benetton and won the world championship in 1983....

 badge. Turbocharged engines were banned by the revised Formula One Technical Regulations for , rendering the M12/13 obsolete.

BMW decided to return to Formula One in the late 1990s by signing an exclusive contract with the Williams
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...

 team, which needed a new long-term engine supplier after the withdrawal of Renault
Renault F1
Lotus Renault GP, formerly the Renault F1 Team, is a British Formula One racing team. The Oxfordshire-based team can trace its roots back through the Benetton team of the late 1980s and 1990s to the Toleman team of the early 1980s. Renault had also competed in various forms since , before taking...

 in . The programme resulted in the creation of a new V10 engine
V10 engine
A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five with a distinct exhaust note.- Mechanics :The V10 is essentially the result of mating two even-firing straight-5 engines together. The straight-5 engine shows first and second order rocking motion...

 which made its race début in the Williams FW22
Williams FW22
The Williams FW22 was the car with which the Williams Formula One team used to compete in the 2000 Formula One season. It also marked the first year of the team's collaboration with BMW as an engine supplier, a partnership which would last for the next five seasons.The car proved to be extremely...

 in . The following year saw the partnership move from the midfield to challenging for race victories, but the desired championship remained elusive due to the dominance of Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver of all time...

 and Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....

 in the first half of the 2000s. By , the relationship between BMW and Williams had detoriated, and BMW chose to part company and buy the rival Sauber
Sauber
Sauber F1 Team is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993....

 team outright.

The BMW Sauber
BMW Sauber
BMW has been involved in Formula One in a number of capacities since the inauguration of the World Drivers' Championship in . The company entered occasional races in the 1950s and 1960s , before building the BMW M12/13 inline-four turbocharged engine in the 1980s...

 project lasted from until , and resulted in a substantial increase in competitiveness for the Swiss former privateer team. Two podium finishes in the first year were followed by a solid third in the Constructors' Championship in (which became second when McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...

 was disqualified). In , Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 won the team's only race, the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
2008 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 8, 2008 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada. It was the 7th race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 70 laps, was won by Robert Kubica for the BMW Sauber team after starting from...

, and led the Drivers' Championship at one point, but the team chose to focus on development of its 2009 car and slipped back in the standings by the end of the season. The 2009 season was a major disappointment as the F1.09
BMW Sauber F1.09
The BMW Sauber F1.09 was BMW Sauber's Formula One motor racing car for the 2009 Formula One season. The car was launched on January 20, 2009 at Circuit de Valencia located in Valencia, Spain...

 chassis proved uncompetitive. Combined with the global financial recession and the company's frustration about the limitations of the contemporary technical regulations in developing technology relevant to road cars, BMW chose to withdraw from the sport, selling the team back to its founder, Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber is the team principal and owner of various motorsports teams, most visibly the eponymous Sauber Formula One team.- Motorsport career :...

.

Entries in the 1950s and 1960s

The early years of the post-war World Drivers' Championship saw private BMW racing cars, based on the pre-war BMW 328
BMW 328
The BMW 328 is a sports car made by BMW between 1936 and 1940, with the body design credited to Peter Szymanowski, who became BMW chief of design after World War II ....

 chassis, entered in the 1952
1952 German Grand Prix
The 1952 German Grand Prix was a Formula Two race held on August 3, 1952 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It was the sixth round of the 1952 World Drivers' Championship, which was run to Formula Two rules in 1952 and 1953, rather than the Formula One regulations normally used.- Race report :Sadly...

 and 1953
1953 German Grand Prix
The 1953 German Grand Prix was a Formula Two race held on August 2, 1953 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. It was the seventh round of the 1953 World Drivers' Championship, which was run to Formula Two rules in 1952 and 1953, rather than the Formula One regulations normally used.- Classification :-...

 German Grands Prix
German Grand Prix
The German Grand Prix is an annual automobile race.Because Germany was banned from taking part in international events after World War II, the German GP only became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1951...

. BMW-derived cars were also entered by the Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau
Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau
Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau was a German racing car constructor. The team was started by Alexander von Falkenhausen, who was in the 1930s an important engineer in the development of BMW's model 328, along with Alfred Boning, Ernst Loof and Fritz Fiedler...

 (AFM) and Veritas
Veritas (Automobile)
Veritas was a famous West German post World War II sports and race car company, located in the village of Hausen am Andelsbach, near Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, later at Meßkirch and Muggensturm and moved finally to the Nürburgring....

 companies in occasional races from to . The entries occurred during this period because the championship was effectively run to Formula Two
Formula Two
Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...

 regulations, allowing the BMW cars to take part. Amongst the modified 328s was one driven by an engine in the rear of the car (known as the "Heck", the German automotive term for "back" or "rear"), a design feature which became standard in Formula One in the early 1960s after later success by the Cooper
Cooper Car Company
The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles' small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England in 1946...

 team.

In the 1960s, the Formula One German Grand Prix was often held concurrently with a Formula Two
Formula Two
Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...

 race on the same circuit, allowing BMW F2 cars to take part. In 1967
1967 German Grand Prix
The 1967 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Nürburgring on August 6, 1967.- Classification :Note: The race was run with both Formula One and Formula Two cars running together...

, BMW entered Hubert Hahne
Hubert Hahne
-Career:He participated in five Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, two of those at the wheel of Formula Two cars, and one non-Championship Formula One race.Hahne was successful in touring car racing, e.g. the European Touring Car Championship...

 in a Lola F2 chassis powered by an enlarged BMW engine which meant that it conformed with the Formula One regulations, while David Hobbs was entered by Lola in the same combination with the standard smaller BMW engine. For the 1968 race
1968 German Grand Prix
The 1968 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring on August 4, 1968. It was the eighth round of the 1968 Formula One season...

, Hahne returned with the previous year's combination and finished tenth, BMW's best result up to this point in its Formula One history. BMW then entered three of its own 269 F2 chassis for the 1969 race
1969 German Grand Prix
The 1969 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Nürburgring on 3 August 1969 with Formula Two cars competing by invitation. It was the seventh round of the 1969 World Championship for Drivers. The F2 entrants were not eligible for points in the World Championship.-Report:Gerhard Mitter...

, for the trio of Hahne, Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Karl Mitter was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.Mitter was born in Schönlinde in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart....

 and Dieter Quester
Dieter Quester
Dieter Quester is an active touring car racing driver from Austria. Dieter has participated in 53 24-Hour Races. He competed in a single Formula One race in which he finished ninth....

, but Mitter was fatally injured in a practice accident and the remainder of the team withdrew from the race.

Brabham, ATS, Arrows, Benetton and Ligier (1982–1988)

Following the commencement in of Renault's
Renault F1
Lotus Renault GP, formerly the Renault F1 Team, is a British Formula One racing team. The Oxfordshire-based team can trace its roots back through the Benetton team of the late 1980s and 1990s to the Toleman team of the early 1980s. Renault had also competed in various forms since , before taking...

 Formula One project with a turbocharged
Turbocharger
A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...

 engine and increasing success thereafter, BMW decided to develop its own turbo engine for the sport, a programme which it announced to the media in April 1980. The engine was based on the M10
BMW M10
The BMW M10/M12 was a straight-4 piston engine produced from 1961 to 1987. Displacement ranged from 1499 cc to 1990 cc.The engine was designed by noted engineer and race driver Baron Alex von Falkenhausen. He was asked to design a small-displacement engine, but felt that this would be...

 unit, a four-cylinder, 1.5 litre, normally aspirated engine
Naturally-aspirated engine
A naturally aspirated engine is one common type of reciprocating piston internal combustion engine that depends solely on atmospheric pressure to counter the partial vacuum in the induction tract to draw in combustion air...

 that had originally been designed in the late 1950s. Its racing derivative, the M12 had also been used in racing throughout the intervening period, winning races in Formula Two
Formula Two
Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of open wheel formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...

 and other categories. In and , BMW provided a fleet of identical M1
BMW M1
The BMW M1 is a sports car that was produced by German automaker BMW from 1978 to 1981.In the late 1970s, Italian manufacturer Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to build a production racing car in sufficient quantity for homologation. The result was sold to the public, from 1978 to...

 cars for Formula One and other professional drivers to race in the BMW M1 Procar Championship, the rounds of which were held during Grand Prix race weekends, thus strengthening the marque's ties with the sport. At the same time, Jochen Neerpasch
Jochen Neerpasch
Jochen Neerpasch is a former German racecar driver and motorsports manager.His racing career began in the 1960s, first on Borgward touring car, then with the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans as a first major event...

 oversaw the development by Paul Rosche of a prototype 1.4 litre turbo engine, which soon developed 600 bhp at a pressure of 2.8 bar. It was equipped with a single Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch (KKK) turbocharger and Bosch
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...

 electronics, including fuel injection. This engine formed the basis of the M12/13 design, the race unit that BMW ultimately supplied to five teams from 1982 to 1988.

Initial discussions were held with double World Champion Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.- Early years in racing :Born in Vienna,...

 and McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...

 on the subject of a 1980 campaign, but the BMW board denied Neerpasch's request for the programme. Neerpasch then left his position to join the French Talbot
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque that existed from 1903 to 1986, with a hiatus from 1960 to 1978, under a number of different owners, latterly under Peugeot...

 marque, which was also planning to enter Formula One, in this case with the Ligier team. Neerpasch had arranged the sale of Rosche's M12/13 engine to Talbot, but Rosche and Neerpasch's successor, Dieter Stappert, successfully protested to their board that such an undertaking deserved full works commitment, particularly as the fact that M12/13 was derived from a production road car engine meant that potential success could be extremely valuable to BMW from a marketing and sales point of view. BMW thus negotiated an exclusive supply of M12/13 engines to the Brabham team.

Testing of the M12/13 got underway in late 1980 with a Brabham BT49
Brabham BT49
The Brabham BT49 is a Formula One racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the to Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet to win his first World Championship in .The car was initially designed in...

 chassis converted to accept the engine. The team's designer, Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray
Prof. Gordon Murray , is a renowned designer of Formula One race cars and the McLaren F1 road car.-Early life:...

, designed a new car, the BT50
Brabham BT50
The Brabham BT50 was a Formula One racing car designed and raced by the Brabham team. The car, powered by the four-cylinder 1.5 litre turbocharged BMW engine, raced in the 1982 Formula One season.-Design and development:...

 for the engine, but it was not completed until well into the season. The BT50 featured a longer wheelbase and a larger fuel cell than the BT49 to accommodate the requirements of the more powerful turbo engine, and was also one of the first Formula One cars to feature onboard telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...

 as a means of monitoring the engine's fuel injection. The team's lead driver, Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...

, tested the BT50 throughout 1981, but the car proved chronically unreliable until Bosch introduced a digital electronic management system at the end of the year, which immediately improved the situation. The BT50 made a solitary race weekend appearance at the 1981 British Grand Prix
1981 British Grand Prix
The 1981 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on July 18, 1981. John Watson won his first race for five years, and McLaren's first since James Hunt's victory at the 1977 United States Grand Prix...

, where Piquet set a qualifying time 0.7 seconds slower than his effort in the Cosworth DFV
Cosworth DFV
The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine...

-powered BT49. The BT50 handled poorly but recorded 192 miles per hour (309 km/h) through the speed trap, some 15 miles per hour (24.1 km/h) faster than the BT49. Meanwhile, Brabham won the Drivers' Championship with Piquet, who drove the BT49 throughout the season.

Brabham began the 1982 season
1982 Formula One season
The 1982 Formula One season was the 33rd FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on January 23, 1982, and ended on September 25 after sixteen races. The World Drivers' Championship was won by Williams driver Keke Rosberg. Rosberg was the first driver since Mike Hawthorn in the 1958...

 with two BMW-powered BT50 chassis at the South African Grand Prix
1982 South African Grand Prix
The 1982 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 23 January 1982. Turbo-charged cars took the first six positions on the grid...

, where Piquet and Patrese qualified second and fourth respectively, but retired early in the race. Team principal Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...

 was under pressure from the team's title sponsor, Parmalat
Parmalat
Parmalat SpA is a multinational Italian dairy and food corporation. Having become the leading global company in the production of ultra high temperature milk, the company collapsed in 2003 with a €14 billion hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy...

, to defend Piquet's championship, and opted to race with the Cosworth-powered BT49 chassis at the Brazilian Grand Prix
1982 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá on March 21, 1982. It was the second round of the 1982 Formula One season....

, which Piquet won but was later disqualified for circumventing the minimum weight limit by running "water-cooled brakes". Both drivers also raced the BT49 at the Long Beach Grand Prix
1982 United States Grand Prix West
The 1982 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on April 4, 1982 at the temporary street circuit at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:...

, and the team boycotted the San Marino Grand Prix
1982 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix was the fourth race of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. It was held on the weekend of April 23–25, 1982 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola...

 as part of the ongoing FISA–FOCA war. For the following race, the Belgian Grand Prix
1982 Belgian Grand Prix
The 1982 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on May 9, 1982. It was the fifth round of the 1982 Formula One season.-Qualifying:...

, Piquet and Patrese switched back to the BT50, but Piquet finished three laps behind the winner and Patrese retired. As the relationship between Brabham, BMW and Parmalat became strained, Ecclestone was forced to compromise, with Piquet continuing development of the BT50 whilst Patrese raced with the Cosworth chassis. At the Monaco Grand Prix
1982 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1982 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 23, 1982.This was the first race following the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix; consequently Ferrari entered only one driver, Didier Pironi....

, Patrese won, whilst Piquet was more than two seconds slower in qualifying and retired from the race. The nadir of BMW's Formula One involvement thus far came at the Detroit Grand Prix, where engine reliability problems prevented Piquet from qualifying.

BMW's fortunes suddenly improved, however, at the next race in Canada
1982 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1982 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 13, 1982. Riccardo Paletti was killed at the start of the race, when his car ran into the back of the stationary Ferrari of Didier Pironi who had stalled on the grid...

, where the cool conditions suited the turbocharged engines and allowed Piquet to lead home Patrese (still in the BT49), to record BMW's first Formula One victory. For the remainder of the season, both drivers raced with the BT50, and used Murray's radical strategy of a planned pit stop for refuelling mid-way through the race to run at the front of the field on numerous occasions. The car was still unreliable, though, restricting Piquet and Patrese to just four further finishes before the end of the season. The BMW engine's competitiveness was shown by the fact that Piquet retired from the lead of the British
1982 British Grand Prix
The 1982 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 18, 1982.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings...

, French
1982 French Grand Prix
The 1982 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on July 25, 1982. Six turbo-charged cars completed the first 6 grid positions, and 4 turbo-charged cars driven by 4 French drivers finished in the top 4 places, and the French Renault team finished 1-2 with René Arnoux...

 and German
1982 German Grand Prix
The 1982 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on 8 August 1982. It was won by Patrick Tambay for Scuderia Ferrari.-Race report:...

 Grands Prix, whilst Patrese likewise retired from the lead of the Austrian Grand Prix
1982 Austrian Grand Prix
The 1982 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One World Championship race held on 15 August 1982 at the Österreichring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race was won by Lotus' Elio de Angelis, who held off Keke Rosberg's Williams to win by just 0.050 seconds, or less than half a car length.- Report...

. Patrese also secured BMW's first fastest lap at the French Grand Prix, whilst Piquet took the marque's maiden pole position
Pole position
The term "pole position", as used in motorsports, comes from the horse racing term where the number one starter starts on the inside next to the inside pole. The term made its way, along with several other customs, to auto racing. In circuit motorsports, a driver has pole position when he or she...

 at the Austrian race.

In , the improved reliability of the BMW engine in the new BT52
Brabham BT52
The Brabham BT52 was a Formula One car designed for the Brabham team by longtime Brabham designer Gordon Murray for the 1983 F1 season. The car ran on Michelin tyres...

 allowed Piquet to win the Drivers' Championship, after overhauling Alain Prost
Alain Prost
Alain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur is a French racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, Prost has won more titles than any driver except for Juan Manuel Fangio , and Michael Schumacher . From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix...

 (Renault) in the points standings. Brabham also finished third in the Constructors' Championship, although Patrese's lack of consistency in the second car prevented the team challenging for this title. Piquet won three races and Patrese won the season finale. BMW also began supplying its engines to the German ATS
ATS (wheels)
ATS was a German Formula One team, named after German alloy wheel brand Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör. The company is based in Bad Dürkheim near the Hockenheimring, its team was active in Formula One from 1977 to 1984.-Wheel manufacturer:...

 team this season, but sole driver Manfred Winkelhock
Manfred Winkelhock
Manfred Winkelhock was a German racing driver. Born in Waiblingen, he was the brother of Joachim Winkelhock and father of Markus Winkelhock, also both racing drivers....

 was unable to score any points.

For , BMW expanded to three teams by also supplying the M12/13 to Arrows
Arrows
Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from to . For a period of time, it was also known as Footwork.-Origins :...

. The team's A7
Arrows A7
The Arrows A7 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1984 Formula One season. The car made its debut at the 1984 Belgian Grand Prix held that year at Zolder...

 chassis was not ready at the beginning of the season, and drivers Marc Surer
Marc Surer
Marc Surer is a former racing driver from Switzerland. He participated in 88 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 9 September 1979. He scored a total of 17 championship points....

 and Thierry Boutsen
Thierry Boutsen
Thierry Marc Boutsen is a former racing driver who raced for the Arrows, Benetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan teams in Formula One.-Career:thumb|left|Boutsen driving for [[Arrows]] at the [[1984 Dallas Grand Prix]]....

 drove the Cosworth-engined A6
Arrows A6
The Arrows A6 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the and Formula One seasons. It was designed by Dave Wass and powered by the Cosworth DFY V8 engine....

 on ten out of 32 entries, but scored three points with BMW engines later in the year. ATS again failed to score with either Winkelhock or Gerhard Berger
Gerhard Berger
Gerhard Berger, is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver, who previously owned 50% of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team until he sold his share back to energy drink owner Dietrich Mateschitz in November 2008....

, and withdrew from the sport at the end of the season. At the front of the field, Piquet was unable to defend his title, which was dominated by the two McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...

 drivers, Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.- Early years in racing :Born in Vienna,...

 and Prost. Piquet took nine pole positions during the season, but retired from the same number of races, and the McLarens were usually faster in race conditions, although he did win the Canadian
1984 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1984 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 17, 1984. It was the seventh round of the 1984 Formula One season.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standings...

 and Detroit Grands Prix. The second Brabham was filled in most races by Teo Fabi
Teo Fabi
Teodorico Fabi , better known as Teo Fabi, is an Italian former racing driver.-Career:Fabi participated in 71 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on January 23, 1982. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 23 championship points...

, who attempted to compete in a full season of IndyCars, but committed to F1 full-time part-way through the year. Due to his American commitments he missed three races, in which he was substituted by his brother, Corrado
Corrado Fabi
Corrado Fabi is a former racing driver from Italy. He participated in 18 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 13 March 1983, scoring no championship points. He was the 1982 European Formula Two Champion driving a March-BMW....

. Winkelhock also raced for the team in the final race of the season after the Fabis' father died shortly before the event.

In , Brabham switched to Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...

 tyres, which had previously not been very competitive against the established Goodyear
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....

 and Michelin
Michelin
Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...

 suppliers, in the hope that the Italian company could provide bespoke tyres that would especially suit the new BT54
Brabham BT54
The Brabham BT54 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray for the Brabham team for the 1985 Formula One season. The car was powered by the BMW M12 4cyl turbo engine and used Pirelli tyres....

 chassis. This proved to be a misjudgement, as Piquet only won one race—the French Grand Prix
1985 French Grand Prix
The 1985 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on July 7, 1985. It was the seventh round of the 1985 Formula One season....

—and the team dropped from fourth to fifth in the Constructors' Championship. The team again had a clear number-one driver policy, with the second seat again being shared, this time between François Hesnault
François Hesnault
François Hesnault is a former racing driver from France. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 25 March 1984...

 and Surer. Arrows, by contrast, had a much improved season, scoring 17 points with Berger and Boutsen, including a podium finish for the latter at the San Marino Grand Prix
1985 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1985 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on May 5, 1985. It was the third round of the 1985 Formula One season.Limited fuel allowances played a big part in the race, as a succession of drivers ran out in the last few laps...

.

For the 1986 season
1986 Formula One season
The 1986 Formula One season was the 37th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on March 23, 1986, and ended on October 26 after sixteen races....

, Murray designed the radical low-line BT55 chassis
Brabham BT55
The Brabham BT55 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray and David North for the Brabham team owned by Bernie Ecclestone. It used a BMW four-cylinder turbocharged engine tilted over on its side to allow a clear supply of air to the rear wing. The car competed during the 1986 Formula...

, whose aim was to significantly reduce the car's drag and lower its centre of gravity. BMW produced the M12/13/1 engine, which was tilted sideways to fit in the reduced space allocated to the engine. Despite its theoretical advantages, the BT55 proved uncompetitive, suffering from poor traction and numerous mechanical failures caused by oil scavenge problems in the tilted engine. Moreover, the team suffered the death of Elio de Angelis
Elio de Angelis
Elio de Angelis was an Italian racing driver who participated in Formula One between and , racing for the Shadow, Lotus and Brabham teams. He was killed during testing at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in 1986...

 in a testing accident after four races; his replacement Derek Warwick
Derek Warwick
Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick is a British former racing driver from England. He raced for many years in Formula One, but never won a Grand Prix. During the early 1980s he was thought more likely to achieve World Championship success than his contemporary Nigel Mansell, but a series of wrong...

 and team returnee Patrese scored two points between them all season. The Arrows team also slipped backwards, scoring just one point with Boutsen, Surer and Christian Danner
Christian Danner
Christian Danner is a former race car driver from Germany.The son of well-known car safety expert Max Danner, Christian started motor-racing in the Renault 5 cup...

, and also lost Surer's services mid-season when the Swiss driver was seriously injured in a rallying accident. BMW's most successful 1986 partnership was thus with the new Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...

 team, which scored 19 points, won the Mexican Grand Prix
1986 Mexican Grand Prix
The 1986 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mexico City on October 12, 1986.It was the first win for Gerhard Berger and the first win for the Benetton team. Benetton ran on Pirelli tyres, and their relative durability compared to competitors on Goodyear tyres played to the...

 and took two pole positions with Berger and Teo Fabi. Arrows and Benetton continued to use the original "upright" version of the M12/13 engine.

BMW reduced its full works commitment to the sole supply of Brabham in ; the team produced the more conservative BT56
Brabham BT56
The Brabham BT56 was a Formula One car designed by John Baldwin and Sergio Rinland and raced by the Brabham team in the 1987 Formula One season. The car was powered by the Straight 4 turbocharged BMW engine and raced on Goodyear tyres. Brabham finished 8th in the 1987 Constructors Championship with...

 chassis and scored ten points with Patrese, Andrea de Cesaris
Andrea de Cesaris
Andrea de Cesaris is an Italian former race car driver. He started 208 races but never won; his is the longest career without a race victory. A string of accidents early in his career earned him the nickname 'Andrea de Crasheris',...

 and Stefano Modena
Stefano Modena
Stefano Modena is a former racing driver from Italy. He participated in 81 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on November 15, 1987. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 17 championship points....

. At the end of the year, team owner Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...

, who was increasingly involved in running the commercial side of the sport, decided not to compete the following year, ending BMW's tenure as a supplier of works turbo engines. The Arrows team, however, was still keen to use the upright version of the M12/13, and arranged for its title sponsor, USF&G
USF&G
USF&G was an American insurance company which existed from 1896 until 1998. Originally called United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, the Baltimore, Maryland-based company was organized on March 19, 1896, and commenced business on August 1, 1896...

, to purchase the remaining stock. The engines were rebadged as "Megatrons", and were used to power the Arrows cars in 1987 and , and the Ligier team in 1987 only. Arrows finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship in the latter of these two seasons, a result which stands as the best in the team's 25-year history.

For , the technical regulations were changed to ban turbocharged engines, outlawing the M12/13 engine. During its time in F1, the engine had won the 1983 Drivers' Championship and nine Grands Prix. In addition, it also took 14 pole positions and set 13 fastest laps.

Williams (2000–2005)

After a ten-year absence from Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

, BMW began evaluating a return to the sport in the late 1990s. In , the marque signed a contract to supply the Williams
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...

 team with engines. Williams had won the , , and Drivers' Championships, and the Constructors' Championships in all of these years as well as , in a successful partnership with Renault
Renault F1
Lotus Renault GP, formerly the Renault F1 Team, is a British Formula One racing team. The Oxfordshire-based team can trace its roots back through the Benetton team of the late 1980s and 1990s to the Toleman team of the early 1980s. Renault had also competed in various forms since , before taking...

, but the French company withdrew from the sport at the end of , leaving team owner Frank Williams and Technical Director Patrick Head
Patrick Head
Patrick Head , is co-founder and Engineering Director of the Williams Formula One team.For 25 years from Head was technical director at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, and responsible for many innovations within Formula One. Head oversaw the design and construction of Williams cars until May 2004...

 in need of a new engine partnership to remain competitive. As BMW spent 18 months building and testing a normally aspirated, three-litre V10 engine
V10 engine
A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five with a distinct exhaust note.- Mechanics :The V10 is essentially the result of mating two even-firing straight-5 engines together. The straight-5 engine shows first and second order rocking motion...

 to comply with technical regulations that had changed significantly since the 1980s, the team used old Renault engines rebadged as first Mecachrome
Mecachrome
Mecachrome SAS is a precision engineering company involved in aviation, the automotive industry, motor racing and industrial engineering, but is most famous for assembling the engines designed by Renault for the Renault Formula One team.-Formula One:...

 and then Supertec
Supertec
Supertec was a Formula One engine supplier in 1999 and 2000. Supertec supplied Renault-designed, Mecachrome-built 1998 season engines updated for 1999 and 2000....

.

BMW's E41 engine was ready to compete in the 2000 season
2000 Formula One season
The 2000 Formula One season was the 51st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2000 FIA Formula One World Championship which commenced on March 12, 2000, and ended on October 22 after seventeen races...

, fitted in the FW22
Williams FW22
The Williams FW22 was the car with which the Williams Formula One team used to compete in the 2000 Formula One season. It also marked the first year of the team's collaboration with BMW as an engine supplier, a partnership which would last for the next five seasons.The car proved to be extremely...

 and driven by Ralf Schumacher
Ralf Schumacher
Ralf Schumacher is a German racing driver, and the younger brother of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher...

 and Jenson Button
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren. He was the 2009 World Drivers' Champion.Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British...

. Schumacher scored a podium finish in the engine's first race, and added two more during the course of the season. A series of consistent points-scoring finishes meant that Williams finished a competitive third in the Constructors' Championship, some distance behind the dominant Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....

 and McLaren teams, but ahead of engine manufacturers with more recent experience.

After the relatively conservative E41, BMW designed the more aggressive P80 engine for , a basic type number that was maintained for the remainder of the company's involvement in Formula One. The engine immediately proved to have a significant power improvement, and propelled Schumacher and new team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán is a Colombian race car driver known internationally for participating and winning in Formula One and CART race competitions. He has enjoyed great success. Currently, he competes in NASCAR, driving the #42 Target Chevrolet Impala for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the Sprint...

 into contention for race victories. In all, the two drivers scored four race wins, but lost other opportunities through unreliability and racing incidents. The FW23
Williams FW23
The Williams FW23 was the car with which the Williams team competed in the Formula One season. It was raced in competition by Ralf Schumacher, who was in his third year with the team, and Juan Pablo Montoya, a previous Formula 3000 and CART champion who was making his F1 début.2001 was Williams'...

 chassis also lacked the ultimate downforce to compete with the Ferrari and McLaren drivers at every circuit, although it was the class of the field at "power circuits" such as Hockenheim
Hockenheimring
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg is an automobile racing track situated near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it biennially hosts the Formula One German Grand Prix...

 and Monza
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is a race track located near the town of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. The circuit's biggest event is the Formula One Italian Grand Prix, which has been hosted there since the sport's inception....

.

For , the reliability and consistency of the FW24
Williams FW24
The Williams FW24 was Williams F1 chassis for the 2002 F1 season. It was closely based on the previous years' FW23, and powered by a development of the ultra-powerful BMW engine from 2001...

 chassis was much improved, but Ferrari made a more significant step forward with its own F2002
Ferrari F2002
The Ferrari F2002 was one of the most successful Formula One car designs of all time. Designed by Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Paolo Martinelli, it won fifteen Grands Prix, from a total of nineteen races in 2002 and 2003....

 chassis and dominated both championships. The team scored twelve more points than in the previous year and beat McLaren to second place in the Constructors' Championship, but only won a single race with Schumacher at the Malaysian Grand Prix
2002 Malaysian Grand Prix
The 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on March 17, 2002 at the Sepang International Circuit and was the second race of the 2002 Formula One season. The Grand Prix is notable for the first lap collision between Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher,...

. Moreover, Montoya was unable to win a single race, despite taking seven pole positions.

The Williams team was more competitive in , as both drivers won on two occasions and Montoya remained in contention for the Drivers' Championship until the penultimate race of the season. However, he ultimately fell short, as did the team in the Constructors' Championship, as although the FW25
Williams FW25
The Williams FW25 is a Formula One car designed by Williams and powered by a BMW V10 engine. The car was used by Williams for the 2003 championship...

 was often the car to beat in the second half of the season, it took too much time to reach this point.

For , the team produced the FW26
Williams FW26
The Williams FW26 is a Formula One racing car designed and built by Williams F1 for the 2004 Formula One season. The design team was led by Patrick Head, Gavin Fisher and Antonia Terzi. It was driven by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya and proved to be one of the most attention grabbing cars...

 chassis, which featured a radical nose section designed by Antonia Terzi
Antonia Terzi
Antonia Terzi is an Italian aerodynamicist who has worked for the Ferrari and Williams Formula One teams.Terzi worked in the design department at Ferrari under Rory Byrne until 2002 when she was recruited by Williams to become the team's chief aerodynamicist...

. This design proved ineffective, however, in another year of Ferrari dominance, and Williams slipped to fourth in the Constructors' Championship, with Montoya's victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix its sole win (and the team's final win to date). Before this result, the team had suffered the embarrassment of a double disqualification from the Canadian Grand Prix
2004 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2004 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on June 13, 2004 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.It was won by Michael Schumacher, with teammate Rubens Barrichello second, making for a 1-2 finish for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro as part of a season where Ferrari took the most wins of the...

 due to brake duct irregularities, and then Schumacher sustaining spinal injuries as a result of a high-speed crash at the United States Grand Prix
2004 United States Grand Prix
The 2004 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on June 20, 2004 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana....

, which caused him to miss six races until he recovered. Both drivers left the team at the end of the season.

The final year of BMW's association with Williams, , saw the team's decline in competitiveness continue, dropping to fifth in the Constructors' Championship. None of the team's three drivers—Mark Webber
Mark Webber
Mark Alan Webber is an Australian Formula One driver.After some racing success in Australia, Webber moved to the United Kingdom in 1995 to further his motorsport career...

, Nick Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld
Nick Lars Heidfeld is a German racing driver.Despite scoring regular podium finishes in and , Heidfeld has yet to win a race since entering Formula One in . This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium...

 and Antônio Pizzonia
Antônio Pizzonia
Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior is a Brazilian racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series.He is nicknamed "Jungle Boy", a reference to his native Amazonas...

—were able to win a race; the team's best result was a double podium finish at the Monaco Grand Prix
2005 Monaco Grand Prix
The 2005 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 19– May 22, 2005 at the Circuit de Monaco. This was the first Monaco Grand Prix held after the death of Prince Rainier III...

. By this time, the team's relationship with its engine supplier had deteriorated, with BMW believing that its engines were capable of winning championships but were being let down by the Williams chassis they were powering. BMW offered to buy the team outright in the hope of gaining overall control of its Formula One endeavours, but Frank Williams refused; as a result, BMW chose to buy the rival Sauber
Sauber
Sauber F1 Team is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993....

 team instead for and end its deal with Williams.

BMW Sauber

BMW bought Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 team Sauber
Sauber
Sauber F1 Team is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993....

 in June 2005 to form the BMW Sauber F1 Team. The takeover came after BMW's relationship with Williams had deteriorated in the previous months, the partnership ending at the end of the season. The team was based at Sauber's headquarters in Hinwil
Hinwil
Hinwil is a municipality in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.- History :The village Hinwil from which the later municipality took its name is first mentioned in 745 as Hunichinwilari, in a donation made by Beata and Landolt to the Abbey of Saint Gall...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and BMW's headquarters in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

The team scored two podium finishes and came fifth in 2006
2006 Formula One season
The 2006 Formula One season was the 57th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship which began on March 12 and ended on October 22 after eighteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Fernando Alonso of Renault F1 for the second year in a...

, its first season in Formula One. This was followed by a second place in 2007
2007 Formula One season
The 2007 Formula One season was the 58th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, which began on 18 March and ended on 21 October after seventeen events. The Drivers' Championship was won by Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen by one point at the...

 after the McLaren team had been excluded from the championship. Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 driver Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 took the team's only Grand Prix victory at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
2008 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 8, 2008 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada. It was the 7th race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 70 laps, was won by Robert Kubica for the BMW Sauber team after starting from...

. Following a poor season, BMW withdrew from Formula One and sold the team back to founder Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber is the team principal and owner of various motorsports teams, most visibly the eponymous Sauber Formula One team.- Motorsport career :...

.

2006

For the 2006 season
2006 Formula One season
The 2006 Formula One season was the 57th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship which began on March 12 and ended on October 22 after eighteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Fernando Alonso of Renault F1 for the second year in a...

, BMW Sauber signed Nick Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld
Nick Lars Heidfeld is a German racing driver.Despite scoring regular podium finishes in and , Heidfeld has yet to win a race since entering Formula One in . This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium...

 from Williams
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...

 to be the lead driver, while World Champion Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve, , is a Canadian musician and automobile racing driver. He is the son of the late Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, and is the namesake of his uncle...

 had his existing two-year contract with Sauber honoured. Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 was signed as the team's third driver. The team continued to use Sauber's facilities, mostly for chassis construction and wind tunnel testing, while BMW's headquarters in Munich were responsible for building the new 2.4 litre P86 V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....

, revised technical regulations forcing a change from the 3 litre V10
V10 engine
A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five with a distinct exhaust note.- Mechanics :The V10 is essentially the result of mating two even-firing straight-5 engines together. The straight-5 engine shows first and second order rocking motion...

 formula. This replaced the Petronas
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...

-badged Ferrari engines which the team had used since 1997. The Sauber team's existing major sponsors, Petronas and Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse
The Credit Suisse Group AG is a Swiss multinational financial services company headquartered in Zurich, with more than 250 branches in Switzerland and operations in more than 50 countries.-History:...

, renewed their contracts with BMW. The team also announced a technical partnership with technology company Intel. The team's new livery, which was maintained throughout its tenure in Formula One, consisted of the traditional BMW blue and white with a hint of red.
Villeneuve scored the team's first points with a seventh place finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix
2006 Malaysian Grand Prix
The 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix was the second Formula One Grand Prix of the 2006 season. The race took place on 19 March 2006.Qualifying on Saturday saw the new rules being put to the test, as David Coulthard, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher were all forced...

, after Heidfeld retired from fifth with an engine failure late in the race. Over the first two thirds of the season the drivers picked up points with a succession of seventh and eighth place finishes, plus a fourth-place finish for Heidfeld at the Australian Grand Prix
2006 Australian Grand Prix
The 2006 Australian Grand Prix was the third race of the 2006 Formula One World Championship. It was held on the weekend of 31 March–2 April 2006 at Albert Park, Melbourne...

. The team ran a radical "twin towers" aero enhancement on the front of the car for the French Grand Prix
2006 French Grand Prix
The 2006 French Grand Prix was the eleventh race of the 2006 Formula One season. It was held on July 14  – July 16, 2006 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours...

, which was meant improve the flow of air over the top of the chassis. The parts were promptly banned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...

 (FIA) as they were adjudged to impede the drivers' vision and thus compromise safety.

Heidfeld scored the team's first podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix
2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
The 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 6, 2006 at the Hungaroring, Budapest. It was the 13th race of the 2006 Formula One season...

 from tenth on the grid. This race also saw the début of Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

, who replaced Villeneuve after the latter had crashed heavily at the preceding German Grand Prix
2006 German Grand Prix
The Großer Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland was the twelfth race of the 2006 Formula One season. It was held on 28 July–30 at the Hockenheimring. The Grand Prix weekend got off to a controversial start when the mass damper system fitted by Renault was deemed legal by the FIA appointed stewards,...

. Kubica finished seventh, although he was later disqualified after his car was found to be underweight. The official reason for Villeneuve's absence was that he was recovering from his previous accident, but the team later announced that the driver change was permanent. Kubica scored BMW Sauber's second podium finish of the season at the Italian Grand Prix
2006 Italian Grand Prix
The 2006 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 September 2006 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza. It was the fifteenth round of the 2006 Formula One season, and was won by Michael Schumacher driving a Ferrari car....

, after running in third place for most of the race and leading briefly during the first round of pit stops. Heidfeld finished in eighth, but set the team's first fastest lap. The team scored a total of 36 points to finish fifth in the Constructors' Championship, an improvement on Sauber's eighth position with 20 points in .

2007

On 19 October 2006, BMW announced that Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 would partner Nick Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld
Nick Lars Heidfeld is a German racing driver.Despite scoring regular podium finishes in and , Heidfeld has yet to win a race since entering Formula One in . This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium...

 for the 2007 Formula One season
2007 Formula One season
The 2007 Formula One season was the 58th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, which began on 18 March and ended on 21 October after seventeen events. The Drivers' Championship was won by Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen by one point at the...

 with Sebastian Vettel taking the test and reserve driver role. Timo Glock
Timo Glock
Timo Glock is a German motor racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for the Virgin Racing team. At the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix, standing in for Giorgio Pantano who had a contract dispute with Jordan Grand Prix, he joined a select group of drivers who have scored a World Championship...

 was later signed as the team's second test driver. The team launched its 2007 car, the F1.07
BMW Sauber F1.07
The BMW Sauber F1.07 is a Formula One single-seater racing car built by BMW Sauber for the 2007 Formula One season. The car was the first to have been designed fully by BMW, following their purchase of the former Sauber team...

, on January 16, 2007.

The new car showed promising form throughout winter testing, topping the times sheets on occasions. However, team principal Mario Theissen
Mario Theissen
Dr. Mario Theissen is the former BMW Motorsport Director and was team principal of BMW Sauber, the company's Formula One team from 2005 until 2009, when BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber....

 declared some reliability concerns before the season's opening race in Australia
2007 Australian Grand Prix
The 2007 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 18 March 2007 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. It was the first race of the 2007 Formula One season. The race, contested over 58 laps, was won by Kimi Räikkönen for the Ferrari team after...

. Kubica retired from fourth place with a gearbox problem, but Heidfeld took over the position and held it to the end of the race. In the early races of the season, Heidfeld and Kubica scored a series of points finishes and established BMW Sauber as the third-fastest team, behind Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....

 and McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...

. Theissen also made the point that the performance gap between BMW Sauber and the two top teams was less than the gap between BMW Sauber and the teams behind it.

The Canadian Grand Prix
2007 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2007 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 10 June 2007, at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. It was the sixth race of the 2007 Formula One season...

 brought mixed fortunes for the team. While Heidfeld scored BMW Sauber's best result thus far with a second place finish, Kubica suffered a huge crash that resulted in a long safety car period. The media was initially told Kubica had broken his leg, but it later proved that he had escaped with only a sprained ankle and concussion. Vettel took his place in the United States Grand Prix
2007 United States Grand Prix
The 2007 United States Grand Prix was the seventh race of the 2007 Formula One season. It was also the last Formula 1 race held in the United States. It was held on 15–17 June at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway...

, finishing in eighth place and therefore becoming the youngest driver to score a Formula One World Championship point. Later in the season, Vettel moved teams to take a race seat at the Toro Rosso
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Scuderia Toro Rosso , also known simply as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, is an Italian Formula One racing team...

 team.

Kubica returned to racing action at the French Grand Prix
2007 French Grand Prix
The 2007 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on July 1, 2007 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France. It was the eighth race of the 2007 Formula One season. The race, contested over 70 laps, was won by Kimi Räikkönen for the Ferrari team after starting from...

 and proved his recovery by finishing in fourth position. Over the remainder of the season, he and Heidfeld continued their form to score a total of 101 points, which secured the team second in the Constructors' Championship after McLaren's disqualification. Heidfeld scored another podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix
2007 Hungarian Grand Prix
The 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix was the eleventh race of the 2007 Formula One season, held between 3 to 5 August at the Hungaroring racing track in Budapest...

 and scored 61 points to Kubica's 39, while Vettel's sole appearance produced an additional point.

2008

On August 21, 2007, BMW confirmed its driver line-up of Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld
Nick Lars Heidfeld is a German racing driver.Despite scoring regular podium finishes in and , Heidfeld has yet to win a race since entering Formula One in . This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium...

 and Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 for the season.
Their 2008 car, the F1.08
BMW Sauber F1.08
The BMW Sauber F1.08 is a Formula One racing car used by the BMW Sauber team during the 2008 Formula One season.-Launch:The F1.08 was launched on January 14, 2008 in Munich. The car was taken out for the first time at the Valencia circuit a day after the launch, where Nick Heidfeld took the car for...

 was officially launched in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 at BMW Welt on January 14, 2008. It made its track debut at Valencia the next day, with Robert Kubica driving. Team principal Mario Theissen
Mario Theissen
Dr. Mario Theissen is the former BMW Motorsport Director and was team principal of BMW Sauber, the company's Formula One team from 2005 until 2009, when BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber....

 set the target of the team's first win.

BMW Sauber started the season well with Kubica narrowly missing out on pole after a mistake in his main qualifying lap in Melbourne
2008 Australian Grand Prix
The 2008 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 16 March 2008 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. It was the first race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 58 laps, was won by Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team after...

. He later retired after being hit by Kazuki Nakajima
Kazuki Nakajima
is a Formula One driver from Japan who drove for the Williams-Toyota team from to . Prior to that he had been their test driver, as well as a competitor in the GP2 Series for the DAMS team....

 but Heidfeld finished second. Kubica took second in Malaysia
2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
The 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on March 23, 2008 at the Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia. It was the 2nd race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 56 laps, was won by Kimi Räikkönen for the Ferrari team after starting...

, with Heidfeld in 6th setting the fastest lap of the race. The team's points total of 11 was their largest score up to that time. In Bahrain
2008 Bahrain Grand Prix
The 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on April 6, 2008 at the Bahrain International Circuit, in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the third race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 57 laps, was won by Felipe Massa for the Ferrari team...

, Kubica scored his and the team's first ever pole position, beating Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. He finished second in the Drivers' World Championship, and is under contract to race for Scuderia Ferrari until the end of the season.-Early years:...

 by just under three hundredths of a second. The team went on to finish 3rd and 4th in the race, equalling their highest round points total and promoting them to first place in the constructors' championship for the first time.

The team also attained a second place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix
2008 Monaco Grand Prix
The 2008 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 25, 2008, at the Circuit de Monaco; contested over 76 laps, it was the sixth race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race was won by the season's eventual Drivers' Champion, Lewis Hamilton, for the McLaren team...

 with Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

, beating both Ferraris and only trailing the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, MBE is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren team. He was the Formula One World Champion.Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire...

 by three seconds.

BMW Sauber's first race victory came in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
2008 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 8, 2008 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada. It was the 7th race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 70 laps, was won by Robert Kubica for the BMW Sauber team after starting from...

, the team achieving a one-two finish with Robert Kubica's first race win and Nick Heidfeld taking second place. The victory came after Lewis Hamilton collided with Kimi Räikkönen in the pitlane, ending the race for both drivers. Kubica was on a different refueling strategy from Heidfeld, who also briefly led the race before securing the one-two finish for BMW Sauber in comfortable fashion.

After the team's breakthrough win, development was switched to the 2009 season where new regulations come into play. This greatly annoyed Kubica, (who was leading the championship after the Canadian Grand Prix), as he felt they could have had a realistic chance of taking at least one title. The lack of development was reflected with a drop of form throughout the second half of the season, causing BMW to be outpaced by Renault, Toyota and even Toro Rosso (who started the season as one of the slowest teams) by the end of the season. Despite this, Kubica remained with an outside chance of taking the drivers championship until the Chinese Grand Prix, the 17th round out of 18.

In October the team confirmed that they would stick with Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 and Nick Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld
Nick Lars Heidfeld is a German racing driver.Despite scoring regular podium finishes in and , Heidfeld has yet to win a race since entering Formula One in . This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium...

 as their drivers for the Season.

2009

Although BMW Sauber targeted the season as the year they would challenge for the title, their start to the season was a disappointment. Kubica was running in 3rd place in the opening round
2009 Australian Grand Prix
The 2009 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 March 2009 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. It was the first race of the 2009 Formula One season. The race, contested over 58 laps, was won by Jenson Button for the Brawn GP team after...

 when he collided with Vettel while battling for 2nd place and was forced to retire. Heidfeld then secured the team's first podium of the year in Malaysia
2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
The 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on April 5, 2009 at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia. It was the second race of the 2009 Formula One season. The race was due to be contested over 56 laps, but due to torrential rain, the race was stopped after...

, but after 6 races BMW Sauber had collected a mere 6 points, and occupied 8th place in the Constructors' Championship out of 10 teams. A raft of upgrades were set for Turkey
2009 Turkish Grand Prix
The 2009 Turkish Grand Prix was the seventh race of the 2009 Formula One season. It was held on June 7, 2009 at Istanbul Park, Istanbul, Turkey.Felipe Massa won the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix for Ferrari, in addition to his wins at Istanbul Park in 2006 and 2007...

, including an improved regenerative braking
Regenerative brake
A regenerative brake is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a vehicle or object down by converting its kinetic energy into another form, which can be either used immediately or stored until needed...

 system (KERS) and a double deck diffuser. While the new diffuser was implemented, the KERS could not be made to fit the new car and both drivers raced without the device. After the qualifying session for the British Grand Prix
2009 British Grand Prix
The 2009 Santander British Grand Prix was the eighth race of the 2009 Formula One season. It was held on 21 June 2009 at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. This was scheduled to be the last British Grand Prix to be held at Silverstone, before the event moved to Donington Park for the...

 Mario Theissen announced that the team had decided to halt further development KERS; of which BMW had been one of the strongest proponents, and focus instead on improving the car's aerodynamics. This left Ferrari and McLaren as the only remaining users of the KERS system. In the European Grand Prix
2009 European Grand Prix
The 2009 European Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race, held on August 23, 2009 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. It was the 11th race of the 2009 Formula One season. The race was contested over 57 laps, an overall race distance of 303.9 km...

 at Valencia Robert Kubica
Robert Kubica
Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

 scored the team's first points since the race in Turkey.

Following a meeting of the BMW board on July 28, the company held at press conference the following morning in which it confirmed the team's withdrawal from Formula One at the end of 2009. Chairman Dr Norbert Reithofer
Norbert Reithofer
Dr.-Ing. Norbert Reithofer is a businessman and current CEO of BMW AG as well as Chairman of the Board of Management.- Biography :...

 described the decision as a strategic one. The Formula One Teams Association
Formula One Teams Association
The Formula One Teams Association is a group of Formula One teams that was formed at a meeting in Maranello on 29 July 2008. This organisation gives the teams a united voice in their ongoing discussions with the FIA and The Formula One Group regarding the future of Formula One. It is headed by...

 released a statement in response pledging its support to help the team remain in F1.

On 15 September 2009 it was announced that BMW Sauber had secured a buyer, Qadbak Investments Limited which said to represent European and Middle Eastern interests. However Lotus had been given the 13th and final slot in the 2010 Championship. The team were awarded what was termed a 14th entry, which hinges either on another team dropping out or all the other teams agreeing to allow 28 cars to enter the 2010 Championship.

On November 22, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung revealed that Qadbak's attempt to purchase the team had failed as it did not have the necessary funds. Qadbak turned out to be a shell company
Shell (corporation)
A shell corporation is a company which serves as a vehicle for business transactions without itself having any significant assets or operations. Shell corporations are not in themselves illegal and have legitimate business purposes. However, they are a main component of the underground economy,...

 with no assets and no investors behind it. On November 27, 2009 it was announced that Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber
Peter Sauber is the team principal and owner of various motorsports teams, most visibly the eponymous Sauber Formula One team.- Motorsport career :...

 would repurchase the team conditional upon the team receiving a FIA entry for the 2010 season. The FIA subsequently granted Sauber an entry on December 3. The team used Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

 engines in .

The team retained the BMW Sauber name for the season, despite using Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

engines.

External links

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