Since taking over the Sauber Team 3 years ago, the BMW team did make headways into the sport although it only managed one win. Theissen said “Of course, we, the employees in Hinwil and Munich, would all have liked to continue this ambitious campaign and show that this season was just a hiccup following three successful years. But I can understand why this decision was made from a corporate perspective. We will now focus sharply on the remaining races and demonstrate our fighting spirit and put in a good result as we bid farewell to Formula One racing.”
Dr Klaus Draeger, a member of the Board of Management also voiced his disappointment over this issue but would need to accept it anyhow. He said “It only took us three years to establish ourselves as a top team with the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet expectations in the current season. Nevertheless, our ten years of Formula One experience have had a major impact on our development engineers. We have racing to thank for numerous technological innovations as well as the competitive spirit that drives us to develop mass-produced cars.”
Currently, the BMW Formula 1 team drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica are not doing too well this season where they are on 13th and 15th places and this would not be the best situation the team would like to be in considering that they did pretty well last season where Kubica won at the Canadian Grand Prix and with their improvements this season, it seemed that they got it all wrong after failing to come into the points a few times.
Many believed that they have chosen to make this decision in light of coming events which include the signing and concluding of the Concorde Agreement which will tie the teams with the sport until 2012 where most quarters believe that BMW is not ready to go that far. This move is not surprising as yet probably because some other teams are also expected to follow suit with Toyota and Renault among those rumoured.
