Formula One news

BMW fixed on new F1 foray

Mario Theissen

Dr Mario Theissen has defended BMW's decision to forsake Williams and go it alone in formula one with its own team. The Munich based marque's motor sport director, likely to become the team principal at BMW-Sauber next year, justified the move by suggesting that the existing collaboration had given '100 per cent'. "Extending the partnership into the future," the German claimed, "wouldn't have made us faster."

But while Williams' Grove chiefs point to a lack of power from the 2005 V10, Theissen suggests that the 'FW27' car could be blamed for the distinct lack of speed.

"The chassis was not up to scratch," he said. "We had hoped that the extensive modifications halfway through the year would help, but we initially went in the opposite direction."

Between Hinwil and Munich, then, BMW has lately been a hive of activity -- interviews for jobs to fill Sauber's under-staffed wind tunnel, for example, started in September and are still going.

For the moment, BMW is therefore fully committed to the highest echelon of motor racing. "Motor sport without BMW," Theissen claimed, "is as difficult to imagine as BMW without motor sport."

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