BMW to announce exit from F1 - tomorrow....

Ahhhhh **** ..

 

That'd be pretty lousy of BMW.

But I'm sure somebody will buy up the Sauber team and run it again from Hinwil, Switzerland using Cossie engines. They got everything there to make a F1 car except engines.

So here is a salute to the reborn Sauber team!

As for Theissen: He can go pound sand.

 

Gives credence to a cost cap in F1.

 

+100

Everyone wants to let-loose the big-budget spending of Ferrari and Mercedes once Max departs. Say goodby, forever, to ALL of the other teams who cannot match their R&D budgets. Rising costs will KILL F1.

 

It does? So explain Brawn and Red Bull then.

 

+1

Hopefully Kubica can get a good seat.

 

Damn... who will force india compete with?

 

It does explain Brawn. The car was completely done by Honda, and is still funded by them.

Doesn't explain Red Bull although we have no idea how much money goes into that team. The owner isn't exactly waiting in soup lines every morning.

 

I'm a big fan of the "Black Box" engine management manipulation thoery.

Really I think they were better equiped to operate on the new restrictions imposed in F1 because they were adapted to operating on a shoe string.
Ferrari, Mclaren, ad nauseum were used to throwing time, money, and people at problems.

And it doesnt hurt to have a good car design from the get-go. Impossible to determine/correct without testing

 

What am I offered for my 07 3 Coupe?

 

Weird Kubica just signed for one more year last week.

 

red bull have been a good improving team over the years. I expected them to be fairly good this year but not as good as this. Fact is, Christian Horner does a fantastic job managing the team which already makes Red Bull a nice environment to work in.

 

Even so, they spend LESS than McLaren, less than Ferrari, less than Toyota, and less than Renault. Yet, somehow they are doing better.

Big budgets certainly help bring success but good design, engineering, teams, management, and drivers are also a pretty good way to spend your money efficiently.

The Yankees have had the biggest budget in baseball for years. Hmmmm. How many championships have they won with that money in the last 10 years? I think that would be one.

 

Maybe Toro Rosso or one of the 3 new teams .

 

Wow, good for him! I say that because they'll more than likely have to pay up, and handsomely, for his year's vacation. Still, as a competitor and driver he'll want to race and will have little problem finding a seat with one of the new teams if he chooses.

 

Sorry dude, but "they've" (whoever 'they" are) been saying that since I started watching, >40 years back.......

Teams come and go and the sport survives - Always has, and without the crazy man, always will.

I'm with Steve here - MM was (remains?) the biggest threat to the future of F1.... It would be a shame if BMW pulled the plug, but no more than that IMHO.

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Yeah - Wheres Florian when we need him?

 

Oddly enough this has attracted very little comment on the BMW boards.

 

I guess that explains the MBz engine....and adapting the chassis to it.....

 

This sucks. I just bought a damn hat!

 

I'll bet Frank Williams has a pretty smug smile on his face.

To have a 'performance' brand like BMW bail on F1 is a shame. They have 1 bad year (on track, and in market), and call it quits. This is EXACTLY why F1 needs to act carefully to sustain the privateer teams. Cost control is one thing, but having a big company BoD decide that the lack of results in F1 is hurting the brand is something the sport will always have to contend with. Thank God for Ferrari, and Frank Williams.

Can we at least get Peter Sauber to take his team back? I'd love to see that, but it ain't going to happen.

It's too bad, and I'm wondering how long it will be before Toyota follows suit.

 

Agreed on every single one of your points.

But somebody will buy the team in Hinwil.

Theissen was an idiot whom I could never stand all along. He sold the 5 year plan to the championship to the BoD and as we all have seen it never happened. After the first victories the chase for the title was due, but instead they took 2 step backwards. I hope he will leave F1 forever.

 

Hey,

Maybe we're heading back to the (so called) "golden age" of privateer teams & "garagistes" running Cossie engines and Hewland gearboxes?

It seems many here preferred those days, so Honda, BMW, Toyota and Renault all pulling the plug will just turn us on to the Ebsilon (?) and USF1 teams.

Just a thought.....

The *only* constant in all this are the red cars - Forza Ferrari!

Forza Felipe & Anna!

 

Sorry Ian, as much as I miss those days they're gone never to return.