BMW to quit F1

Formula One's troubled season took another dark turn Wednesday when BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer confirmed at the carmaker's headquarters in Munich that the German team will pull out of F1 at the end of this campaign.

"The board decided yesterday that we would change our involvement in motorsport. The BMW Group will not continue its Formula One campaign after the end of the 2009 season," BMW chairman Reithofer said. "Of course, this was a difficult decision for us, but it's a resolute step in view of our company's strategic realignment.

"Premium will be increasingly defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead.

"We are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability.

"Our Formula One campaign is thus less a key promoter for us," Reithofer added.

Reithofer's statement appeared to give weight to the belief that the reasons for the decision were neither the high costs nor the team's current disappointing results, but a company-internal strategy change. BMW is believed to be quitting only Formula One, and will remain active in other motorsports.

Governing body blames credit crunch

However, motorsport's ruling body, the FIA, blamed the global recession, which has already claimed Honda's F1 scalp. BMW have been badly hit by the current economic crisis with profits tumbling by 89.5 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, and group sales dropping 19.5 percent in the first half of 2009.

"The FIA regrets the announcement of BMW's intended withdrawal from Formula One but is not surprised by it," the FIA said in a statement. "It has been clear for some time that motor sport cannot ignore the world economic crisis. Car manufacturers cannot be expected to continue to pour large sums of money into Formula One when their survival depends on redundancies, plant closures and the support of the taxpayer.

"This is why the FIA prepared regulations to reduce costs drastically," the FIA said. "These measures were needed to alleviate the pressure on manufacturers following Honda's withdrawal, but also to make it possible for new teams to enter.

"Had these regulations not been so strongly opposed by a number of team principals, the withdrawal of BMW and further such announcements in the future might have been avoided.

"Nevertheless, as a result of a sustained cost-cutting campaign by the FIA, new measures are in the process of being agreed which should make it easier for new teams to enter and enable existing ones to participate on much-reduced budgets.

"Hopefully it will be enough to prevent further withdrawals and provide a solid foundation for Formula One."

Partner faces uncertain future without BMW

While the FIA seemed not to be shocked by BMW's decision, despite coming out of the blue when most people expected such a statement from either Renault or Toyota, BMW's partner in the team, Sauber, appeared to have been taken off-guard by the move.

"BMW's announcement that it was pulling out of Formula One at the end of the season was a complete surprise for me," said team founder Peter Sauber, who formed Sauber in 1993 but is now a minority shareholder after the German carmaker took control in June 2005. "I respect and accept the decision but am still finding it hard to digest. The position we are in now makes it very difficult."

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) has announced it will stand behind any attempt to save Sauber with general secretary Simone Perillo announcing Wednesday that FOTA was ready to give "every necessary support" to the Swiss-based team.

BMW Sauber, which employs 730 people, debuted in F1 in 2006. So far the team has celebrated only one victory, by Polish driver Robert Kubica in Montreal, Canada, in June 2008. Kubica also achieved the team's only pole position in Bahrain, also in 2008.

The team finished third last season behind Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes.

It remains unclear how the BMW-Sauber operation in Munich and Switzerland's Hinwil will be run down and how many of the approximate 700 employees will lose their jobs.

"As we only made this decision yesterday, we are not in a position to give any concrete details," said BMW's head of development Klaus Draeger. "We will look at and evaluate several different scenarios in an attempt to find a solution for those employees involved in Hinwil and with the Formula One project."

nda/hf/AP/dpa
Editor: Chuck Penfold