GALLERY: The New BMW-Sauber C29 F1 Car For The 2010 Season

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What does BMW's exit mean for F1?

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BMW has confirmed that this will be its last season in Formula 1.

The team, which had been tipped to fight for the world championship, has been struggling to make an impact on the track this year.

But that's only part of the story.

Like Honda, which pulled out of Formula 1 before the season had even started, the German carmaker has seen its sales and profits tumble as a result of the global economic downturn.

In such a difficult environment, they are struggling to justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on motor sport.


Before the end of the year, we will see at least one other car manufacturer leave F1
F1 analyst Christian Sylt of Formula Money

BMW's departure leaves four car manufacturers still competing in F1: Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, Toyota and Renault.

Ferrari is unlikely to leave the sport, because its image as a manufacturer of supercars is intimately tied to its racing heritage.

But there is widespread speculation that at least one of the other major brands could follow BMW out of the door.

BMW to host press conference

BMW has called a press conference for today in Munich to discuss "current developments in motor sport". This has led to speculation that the company will be quitting Formula 1. Whatever the case, it is a press statement that will involve not only BMW's motorsport director Dr Mario Theissen, but also his boss Dr Klaus Draeger and the overall boss of the company Dr Norbert Reithofer.

Formula 1: Robert Kubica and BMW Sauber show they can take on the big guns

We have seen three very different races and three different victors so far. With a three-week gap before the European season kicks off, it’s time to see who’s hot and who’s not.


Despite a truly disastrous opening race in Melbourne, Ferrari have been the form team so far this year despite lying second in the constructors' championship (down only to Felipe Massa’s silly error in Malaysia where second place was surely safe). Clearly the fastest, and crucially – as seen most recently in Bahrain – the least punishing on tyres in the most crushing of conditions, the F2008 is a triumph of aerodynamic stability (which the McLaren has yet to show) and sheer pace (something BMW Sauber cannot quite replicate just yet).

The drivers, too, Melbourne dramatics aside, have displayed the kind of attitude and commitment that wins titles. Kimi Raikkonen, of course, has shown the greater composure and skill. In Bahrain, his experience and maturity enabled him to settle for eight points and he remains the more fancied to triumph over his Brazilian team mate. But, thankfully, Massa proved the alarmingly keen doubters wrong with a commanding display in the desert, despite the psychological barrier of failing to clinch pole – something which could have affected him after two races in which he was seen by many to have taken a step back to his wild Sauber days.

McLaren remain the closest team to the Italians, but some worrying cracks are undoubtedly forming. The MP4-23 is at times the fastest package on the grid and will remain a contender for the title all season, but a few tenths have been lost to Ferrari over the winter. The bigger worry for the Woking squad is the car's lack of traction and grip – significantly highlighted in Bahrain and especially Malaysia.

The team’s darling and unofficial No.1 driver Lewis Hamilton is evidently enjoying his second Formula 1 season much less. The ’debut season rookie’ label is off now and replaced with expectation; it hasn’t helped either that Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen, as expected by some, has comprehensively beaten Hamilton for pace and self-control. It is, of course, no crisis for Hamilton, not yet.

By far the next best team, BMW Sauber are currently leading the constructors' championship and have been the revelation of 2008. Any gremlins that existed over winter testing have been shaken off and the squad – given the dramatic swings in momentum between the top two teams race by race – can expect regular podium finishes and a fair few more pole positions throughout the season.

In Robert Kubica, the team had their historic first pole sitter in Bahrain. The Polish driver has been correctly labelled the brightest young thing in the sport. His raw pace is now being met with a greater composure and a maturity that defies his 23 years. Teammate Nick Heidfeld has to be feeling a tad anxious, despite a solid second place amidst the carnage Down Under. He, too, is being slightly overshadowed by his less prolific teammate.

The midfield battle has been an incomprehensible mess of race-to-race form that has seen most teams capture the limelight on at least one occasion. Of them, Williams have enjoyed the most success with 10 points after three races. Nico Rosberg’s fine drive to a maiden podium in Melbourne was a stark contrast to a disappointing 14th place in Malaysia, where the team were nowhere after suffering McLaren-style with a lack of aerodynamic structure.

In Bahrain he could only muster an indifferent eighth after failing to conquer his main race rival Jarno Trulli in an improved yet still hardly revolutionary TF-108. Toyota themselves, in the hands of Trulli, look to be back to their regular points finishes, which is fine for a small independent team, not the Japanese giants. Toyota can at least be happy that perhaps for the first time, they have two drivers who with their combined pace, experience and proven title-winning mentality are actually worthy of a place in F1.

They will improve with every race.

Along with the unfancied Toyota, Honda have surprised everybody with their pace and reliability – especially in qualifying where the team have been in or around the top 10; a vast development on the rank 2007 car. Ross Brawn has made the difference much quicker than expected and I fancy the team – with the calibre of its fast and evergreen driver pairing – to grab a healthy points haul by the season’s end.

The midfield teams who have faltered are obviously Renault and Red Bull. The former world champions have not improved at all on their 2007 back-step. Fernando Alonso, like Giancarlo Fisichella and Kovalainen before him, is doing the best he can with the car, and even that is rewarding him with nothing more than a draining battle that ends with little or no points. Red Bull, who do not possess the pedigree of Renault, have fewer reasons to despair, but the team can once again boast an Adrian Newey-designed car – something that should have pulled in more than four points after three races.

A special mention for David Coulthard, who is sadly beginning to show signs of fatigue and a real lack of concentration and probably commitment. Two wasteful collisions and an uninspiring ninth place are hardly commendable for a man of such experience.

Lastly, of the three teams with the least promise on paper it has been Force India who have delighted the most. In the veteran Fisichella’s hands (a man who for no straightforward reason has always excelled in lesser cars), the team are achieving race pace equal to Toyota and have enjoyed the biggest leap in form since last year.

The former Spyker squad, like Torro Rosso, are still using a revised 2007 entry, but the Red-Bull sister team, with their superior resources and more stable foundations are scoring the points. The two ‘Sebs’ are a delightful mix of exciting pace and feel, and proven title-winning composure. They have made the rather faceless Torro Rosso squad a joy to behold.

Super Aguri, who did so well to even make it to the grid, are in dire need of some resources and funds. The team have so far resembled the Minardi outfit in their final years – verging on embarrassment.
Can the Sauber team challenge the Ferrari and McLaren big guns in F1? Tell us what you think, either by commenting below or writing your own Sportingo article.

source: sportingo

BMW hoping to shake up F1 pecking order

LONDON � BMW Sauber took the lead in the Formula One championship for the first time at the weekend in their bid to break the Ferrari-McLaren stranglehold on the sport.

Team boss Mario Theissen hoped the next Spanish Grand Prix would see further progress for his team, whose main target is a first race win this season.

Champions Ferrari and McLaren have between them won the last 21 races. "The next step will be Barcelona and we have a chance to test there before and every team will have a development package there," Theissen said after Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

"It could change the pecking order, depending on how strong the development packages are.

"We have quite a significant package on the aero side as well as on the chassis side."

BMW Sauber had their best weekend yet in Bahrain, with Poland's Robert Kubica securing his and the team's first pole position before taking their third podium finish in three races.

They had no technical problems and Kubica was not far off the Ferrari duo at the end of the race.

Germany's Nick Heidfeld finished fourth, allowing BMW Sauber to take the overall lead by one point ahead of champions Ferrari. McLaren are a further point back.

"The performance potential of the car is way higher than last year's car and the more you go to the limit, the more difficult it is to fully exploit that potential and fine tune the package so that it works in all conditions," said Theissen. "That is a process we had to learn after the launch and the process is not finished yet.

"Certainly we are one of the three top teams now and then it depends on daily form who is ahead. It's not just about the performance of the car, you have to get your act together when it counts," he said.

McLaren struggled, with Lewis Hamilton losing the championship lead and making almost as many serious mistakes in one weekend as he did in all of last season, but team boss Ron Dennis was confident that Bahrain was just a blip.



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BMW Sauber emerging to challenge Ferrari and McLaren in Formula One

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The recent history of Formula One is a tale of one-on-one rivalries: Ferrari versus McLaren, Senna versus Prost, Michael Schumacher versus the world.

Change, however, appears to be afoot.

As the Formula One circus left the Asian tropics of Malaysia this week for the Arabian desert of Bahrain, Ferrari and McLaren are facing up to the real possibility of a three-way struggle for the 2008 drivers' and constructors' titles.

Ferrari left Malaysia revitalized, with Kimi Raikkonen winning to assert his world championship defence and put the woes of the Australian season opener behind the team.

For all the momentum the Finnish driver's win produced for Ferrari, it was the performance of BMW Sauber that was perhaps the most significant outcome of the race.

Robert Kubica's second place in Malaysia gave the team podium finishes in two straight races for the first time. The 11 points BMW Sauber earned in the race were also a record for the team, and Nick Heidfeld turned the fastest lap.

It was the first time in his 136-race career that Heidfeld had recorded a fastest lap. Coming from a driver known more for being tidy than quick, that spoke volumes about the team's potential in 2008.

Ferrari's team principal Stefano Domenicali can hardly fail to see the threat posed by BMW Sauber, which leads the Italian team by eight points in the constructors' championship standings even after the Malaysia win.

"We need to respect them and we will for sure," Domenicali said.

After being clearly the best-of-the-rest in 2007 behind the dominant Ferraris and McLarens, BMW Sauber was aiming for more this year.

"We set two goals for this year," team principal Mario Thiessen said. "One of them was to make the battle in front of us into a three-way battle, and it looks like we are doing that - at least based on the two races so far.

"The other target was to win our first race this year, and I am confident we can do that."

Should it succeed in winning races this year, the competition for the constructors' title, if not the drivers' title, could become the closest since the 2003 season when the top three teams ended up separated by just 16 points.

Certainly, BMW Sauber travels to Bahrain with the least concerns of the top three teams.

For Ferrari, some of the polish was taken off Raikkonen's Sepang win by the failure of teammate Felipe Massa, who spun off the track while in a comfortable second place and under no pressure.

Coming on top of Massa's failure in Melbourne, where he also spun off before retiring, the Sepang mistake prompted further speculation about how long the Brazilian will last at Ferrari, his three-year contract notwithstanding.

Even before the race, Toro Rosso's rising star, Sebastian Vettel, was being linked with the second seat at Ferrari, and Renault's two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso, also has said it was natural he was being connected with the Italian team.

The prospect of Alonso driving for Ferrari may have been boosted by the exit of former team principal Jean Todt, now a team adviser, who had previously spoken of his opposition to recruiting the Spaniard.

McLaren has concerns of its own after an error-ridden performance in Malaysia.

Firstly, its two drivers were relegated five spots on the grid each for causing interference in qualifying.

Then Lewis Hamilton put in a drive more in keeping with a raw second-year youngster than the preternatural prodigy he appeared to be in 2007, when he conceded the championship by one point in the last race of the season.

He flat-spotted and delaminated his tires, both as a result of a loss of grip caused by driving too close to the Red Bull of Mark Webber, and spent much of the race following, and overdriving.

Hamilton - who leads the drivers' championship by three points after his win in Australia and points in Malaysia - was also compromised by a questionable choice of a softer tire in the middle of the race.

Only the timing of the safety car in Australia prevented Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen from being level on points with the Briton, and the No. 1 status he appeared to inherit with the departure of Alonso to Renault may not be permanent.

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