BMW Sauber F1 sold to Peter Sauber, deal with Qadbak cancelled
BMW has officially announced that it has sold its Formula 1 team back to Peter Sauber and that the deal with Qadbak will not proceed further. This is good news as there should not be any reason for the FIA and other teams not to give Sauber the green light to race in 2010.
“We are very happy with this solution. This fulfils the most important requirement for a successful future for the team. Our relationship with Peter Sauber has always been excellent and marked by absolute respect. We would like to express our thanks to Peter Sauber and the whole team for the excellent cooperation during the recent four years,” said Dr Klaus Draeger, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
Peter Sauber added, “I am very relieved that we have found this solution, it means we can keep the Hinwil location and the majority of workplaces. I am convinced that the new team has a very good future in Formula 1 whose current transformation with new framework conditions will benefit the private teams.” A further agreement with Peter Sauber proposes personnel cuts from the current level of 388 to around 250 employees.
There should be a total of 13 teams now, meaning 26 cars on the grid so it should be an exciting season. Furthermore with the team returning back to Peter Sauber, Petronas is likely to maintain its position as a sponsor, probably becoming the title sponsor again.
November 28, 2009 @ 12:22 am
Fuhh..good news after all..
November 28, 2009 @ 12:30 am
Paul, last paragraph. Exciting, not exiting. Cheers
November 28, 2009 @ 1:19 am
dats the way it should be
November 28, 2009 @ 1:23 am
Sauber Petronas once again
November 28, 2009 @ 8:05 am
Sauber BMW F1 cars always have the most (i won’t say ugly) distinctive nose.
..in F1..more teams always means better race
November 28, 2009 @ 9:33 am
return of the green machine
November 28, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
sauber petronas datang lg…hahaa..
November 28, 2009 @ 1:50 pm
Quote: Furthermore with the team returning back to Peter Sauber, Petronas is likely to maintain its position as a sponsor, probably becoming the title sponsor again.
Are you sure? With the AirAsia led F1 M’sia, do you think Petronas will be hard pressed to support local team.
November 28, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
Doesn’t matter, either way the Malaysian Teams will lose
November 28, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
stupid mazda pencacai cingciapore
November 28, 2009 @ 7:49 pm
patiniox said,
November 28, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
stupid mazda pencacai cingciapore
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no just being realistic
November 28, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
Yehaa…Hope to see Sauber PETRONAS on the grid again. Since PETRONAS involvement in F1 has been strictly a business venture, the ‘other’ team does not really look that convincing as a business entity..at least for the first few years…
November 28, 2009 @ 9:49 pm
We’re jumping the gun here.
The news is that BMW sold their equity back to Peter Sauber. This doesn’t mean ‘Hooray they’ll be at Bahrain!’
1. FIA still need to offically give them a slot
2. Peter Sauber still need investors to finance the team probably to operate at lower costs (lower competitivenes) then they were used to with BMW behind them.
3. Who will be their engine supplier?
4. Petronas? They were exiting BMW Sauber anyway at the end of 2009. So have they changed their mind??
There’s still a lot for Peter Sauber to do but at least now there is certainty that he is in control and that is always welcomed.
November 28, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
Good news for the team and Mr Sauber. Always admired his ability to run the team. Hope he gets the proper funding and engine supplier.
November 29, 2009 @ 12:17 am
Yes!!! Finally the sauber team is back…
November 30, 2009 @ 8:50 am
who is the driver….kubica already gone..
November 30, 2009 @ 9:15 am
so… Petronas will not go to 1MF1 Team??
November 30, 2009 @ 2:09 pm
alex yoong?
November 30, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
pick me as driver;)
November 30, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
I am very sure petronas would like to stay away from lotus f1 if it can… if they were going to sponsor that 1 malaysia team they would have done it a long time ago. Pretty obvious Petronas does not want to have anything got to do with that team…
anyway sauber and petronas have been buddies since the late 90s and a lot have came out of their partnership from the Petronas v6 engine, to the Petronas superbikes.
If sauber does get its place next year does that mean. They will return to ferrari transmitions and engines? wish they go with Mercedes engines…
December 1, 2009 @ 12:37 am
Ferrari engines and trans just like the good old days of Sauber Petronas. De ja vu? Realistically Sauber would end up somewhere in the middle of the pack as before the BMW era, at best.
At least Petronas can sent some engineers to join the team like before.
In my opinion too that Petronas will not sponsor a team just for the sake of being Nationalistic. They would want the brand recognition and they will not get it with a team struggling at the back.
December 1, 2009 @ 12:54 am
paxter said,
November 30, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
anyway sauber and petronas have been buddies since the late 90s and a lot have came out of their partnership from the Petronas v6 engine, to the Petronas superbikes.
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What Petronas V6 engine? There never was such an engine. The Petronas bike had nothing to do with the F1 programme.
Petronas spend money in F1 to benefit the company, mostly for branding. It is not really for nationalistic reasons. Neither are they spending to enhance their retail revenue. You can’t walk into a Petronas petrol station in Europe like you would say a Shell station.
If it was for nationalistic reasons we would certainly see engineers, drivers, marketeers, technology etc coming out by the dozens from their 12 year involvement in F1. Unfortunately there is none at the moment.
December 1, 2009 @ 10:56 am
There WAS a V6 engine developed by Petronas, but I am not sure if Sauber engineers have any input.
The Petronas superbike FP1 was developed with Carl Foggerty, a former superbike champ, with some track successes. However the limited edition road bike didn’t do well due to the high pricing and the remaining components are stored at the Modenas factory in Kedah, the last time i heard.
December 1, 2009 @ 1:09 pm
Leonardo said,
December 1, 2009 @ 10:56 am
There WAS a V6 engine developed by Petronas, but I am not sure if Sauber engineers have any input.
The Petronas superbike FP1 was developed with Carl Foggerty, a former superbike champ, with some track successes. However the limited edition road bike didn’t do well due to the high pricing and the remaining components are stored at the Modenas factory in Kedah, the last time i heard.
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anybody owns the bike? the naza showroom in PJ still has the FP1 logo on it
December 1, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
As far as I know the only car engine that Petronas built and used as PR to justify their involvement with Sauber via SPE (Sauber Petronas Engineering) was the E01w 4 cylinder engine. However the technologies in use in F1 at the time simply cannot be implemented in the 4 cyl engine.
December 1, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
Ferruccio said,
December 1, 2009 @ 12:54 am
If you read the memoirs of the previous Chairman of petronas or did some research before bashing. You would know petronas with saubers help built a v6 engine as a prototype and tried to sell it to proton. But proton wanted to go with their own ideas… thus the engine was kept a side till it was sold to a chinese company
http://paultan.org/2005/07/08/the-petronas-e01/ there u go a link IN PAUL tan on the e01
December 1, 2009 @ 4:09 pm
If you read the memoirs of the previous Chairman of petronas or did some research before bashing. You would know petronas with saubers help built a v6 engine as a prototype and tried to sell it to proton. But proton wanted to go with their own ideas… thus the engine was kept a side till it was sold to a chinese company
http://paultan.org/2005/07/08/the-petronas-e01/ there u go a link IN PAUL tan on the e01
December 1, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
Thank you for the article paxter but did you actually read the article yourself before promoting it?
How did you conclude that the EO1 engine is a V6 ??????
The EO1 engine as I have said is a 4 cylinder unit. They built the EO1e and EO1w. Btw the e and w versions denote engine orientation. ‘East-West’ or ‘West-East’
December 2, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
Well done paxter. Yes, Petronas did sell the engine to a Chinese party.
Ferrucio, “Petronas spend money in F1 to benefit the company, mostly for branding. It is not really for nationalistic reasons.” if this is true why do they have Malaysia on the cars they sponsor?
“Neither are they spending to enhance their retail revenue. You can’t walk into a Petronas petrol station in Europe like you would say a Shell station.” Well, obviously they have other businesses not just retail stations. Retail brings in small margins, they should concentrate on the bigger bucks.
“If it was for nationalistic reasons we would certainly see engineers, drivers, marketeers, technology etc coming out by the dozens from their 12 year involvement in F1. Unfortunately there is none at the moment.” You really live under a tempurung la. So, you think these people will walk around telling everyone they were involved in F1 is it? I know 3 or 4 engineers personally, and I understand that there were over 20 whom benefited directly from their exposure in F1. I guess, Petronas, after spending so much on them, would like to retain these talented individuals. After all, by contributing to Petronas they indirectly contribute to the country as well.
Driver?? Well we all know what happened to Alex Yoong. Petronas must have sighed a relief when they were not ‘encouraged’ to take him onboard, not the best of branding right?!
December 2, 2009 @ 12:45 pm
Anyway, I look forward to hearing Petronas’ decision on F1
December 2, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
A revival for Sauber Petronas team….
Blue + Green car.Yeah!!