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From the end of the war until 1954, the principle German racing series, East and West, was for Formula Two and was dominated by BMW-engined specials. Several of these appeared in World Championship events, 1952-3, mainly in the German GP.
Special mention should be made of Paul Greifzu, a brilliant engineer/driver from East Germany, whose talents were largely unknown in the West. He never competed in a WC event, but it would be negligent to pass him over. Greifzu was killed in early 1952, but his car was entered by his widow in the 1952 and 1953 German GPs.
The design of the BMW 328 engine had been acquired by Bristol Cars as part of war reparations and the anglicised BMW engine was a popular choice for the 2-litre Formula Two. Cooper and Frazer Nash both scored WC points with the Bristol/BMW engine.
Over the years, BMW has enjoyed tremendous success in various forms of motorsport, including motorcycle racing, Touring Cars, hillclimbs, and also won the Le Mans 24 hours in 1999.
BMW first entered Formula One with Brabham in 1982 during the turbo era, and subsequently supplied engines to Arrows, ATS and Benetton, powering Nelson Piquet to the World Championship in 1983.
From 1986 on, BMW toyed with the idea of entering Formula One as a manufacturer and in 1990 built a V12 engine to go into a chassis designed by Simtek. However, this move was quashed by the board of directors and it was not until 2000 that the company returned to Formula One, as engine supplier to Williams.
The relationship with Williams got off to a great start when Ralf Schumacher finished third, behind the Ferraris, at Melbourne, with further podiums at Spa and Monza.
The following year, Ralf Schumacher gave the BMW WilliamsF1 Team its first win, taking a convincing victory at San Marino, with further wins in Canada and Germany, and a maiden win for Juan Pablo Montoya (Monza).
In 2002 and 2003, Williams finished runner up to Ferrari, but there was already evidence that the 'marriage' between the very English chassis manufacturer, and the very German engine supplier, was shaky. BMW Motorsport director, Gerhard Berger, was keen to see the team enter F1 in its own right, but the board of directors stuck to its guns.
Then, things started to go wrong on track, the disastrous 'tusk nose' of the FW26 being a prime example. Also, there was clear evidence of a growing rift as Patrick Head, a man well known for voicing his opinion, hit out at BMW.
In the pitlane it was rumoured that BMW Motorsport director, Mario Theissen, was now attempting to sell the F1 dream to the board of directors, though pitlane cynics believe much of his motivation was due to the fact that the German wanted to be a 'team principal'.
When the statesmanlike Frank Williams publicly criticized BMW, it was obvious that the marriage was at an end, and while some speculated that the Germans might seek an alternative partner, others remained convinced that Theissen had successfully sold his employer on the dream, and possible glory, of establishing a successful F1 team of its own. Consequently, the Bavarian manufacturer bought out Sauber, from neighbouring Switzerland.
Curiously, rather than enter F1 as BMW, the Sauber name was retained, with the team running under the BMW Sauber F1 Team banner.
Having enjoyed success in all other forms of motorsport, all eyes were on the German team. However, Theissen made it clear from the start the team philosophy would be 'softly, softly' with the intention of building a championship winning team over a number of season rather than making wild promises at the outset.
With a cast iron contract from Sauber, Jacques Villeneuve was retained, with Nick Heidfeld moving over from WilliamsF1. Polish sensation Robert Kubica was given the role of reserve driver, with Theissen also keeping a watching eye on former Formula BMW Germany champion, Sebastian Vettel.
In the initial races, the BMW F1.06 package suffered from two problems, the inability of the chassis to work with soft compounds and vibration from the BMW V8.
As the season progressed the team worked on the problems and from San Marino the F1.06 was clearly improving, with the team regularly scoring points. That said, in Melbourne both drivers had come hope in the points with the team scoring eight points in its third race - it took Toyota almost two seasons to score that many.
A crash at Hockenheim left Villeneuve suffering headaches and consequently the Canadian was replaced by Kubica.
Depending on who you believe this is where it all went wrong for the 1997 World Champion. First off, Kubica gave a remarkable performance, and it was only the fact that he was disqualified as a result of his car being underweight that prevented him from scoring a point on his GP debut. Secondly, there is the theory that Theissen, unhappy at having to accept Villeneuve's Sauber contract, now had cause to dump the 35-year-old.
Either way, Villeneuve was dropped, to be replaced by Kubica, with Sebastian Vettel stepping up to the role of third driver.
Kubica's pace lit a fire under Heidfeld's backside, with both of them looking over their shoulders at Vettel, who spent the remainder of the season topping the Friday timesheets.
Finishing fifth in the Constructors' Championship, admittedly fifty points down on Honda, but ahead of Toyota, will have no doubt persuaded Theissen, and more importantly his superiors, that BMW made the right move in going solo.
Heidfeld, Kubica and Vettel were all retained for 2007, and much was expected of the new package. Whereas much of the F1.06 had been designed before BMW bought Sauber, the F1.07 was the first genuine F1 car built under the BMW banner.
Speaking at the launch of the team's 2007 contender, Theissen said: "In 2006 we exceeded our own targets. Now expectations are rising faster than the team can develop. That's the punishment for excelling yourself."
2006 had been an excellent debut season for the German team, but ahead of the new season there was widespread anticipation that Williams and Red Bull would show signs of improvement and challenge the newcomers. Many believed that despite the progress made in 2006, the German outfit would have trouble maintaining it.
However, as it happens, BMW continued its X-year plan with typical German efficiency, clearly building upon the foundations lain in 2006.
While the F1.08 was no match for McLaren or Ferrari, it was soon clear that it was 'best of the rest', leaving Renault very much in the shade. Theissen had said, pre-season, that the team's task for 2007 was to halve the gap to the leaders, in practice, the German outfit had done this within the first couple of races.
As it happened, for much of the season, particularly in qualifying, the BMWs were very, very close to the leaders, it was only in the run-in to the season finale that both McLaren and Ferrari began to widen the gap again.
In addition to its highly efficient, and clearly successful, approach to it F1 programme, which included Albert2, its state of the art supercomputer, BMW had two excellent drivers in Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, not forgetting Sebastian Vettel.
There were problems, most notably the early-season gearbox glitches, then there were the hydraulics failures, particularly Kubica's while leading in China. There was also the strategy error at Monaco, to all intents and purposes a clear example of BMW's lack of experience as an entrant.
Heidfeld and Kubica appeared to get along well and kept each other honest throughout the year. At season end however, it was the German who had the upper hand, finishing fifth in the Drivers' Championship, just ahead of his Polish teammate, but amassing twenty-two points more. Quick Nick also claimed the team's two podium finishes.
Kubica took a little longer to adapt to the switch to Bridgestone, even though Albert2 made things a little easier for his team, while there was also that horrendous crash in Canada which saw him ruled out of the race at Indianapolis.
Following the exclusion of McLaren, BMW was second in the Constructors' Championship with almost double the points scored by third placed Renault. However, championship-winning Ferrari had more than double the German team's points.
In 2008, both drivers were retained, with Christian Klien brought in as test driver now that Timo Glock had moved to Toyota.
On paper, 2008 was another successful season for BMW, the Munich-based outfit ticking off another couple of boxes as it kept true to its 'three-year plan'. However, the reality was somewhat different.
Having achieved its self-set goals in 2006 and 2007, the German team did it again in 2008, when Kubica won the Canadian GP, leading home Heidfeld to score an impressive 1-2. However, almost from that moment the team appeared to give in, settling for what it had already achieved.
Suddenly Kubica was leading the World Championship, the team having led the Constructors' Championship earlier in the year, a situation surely beyond their wildest dreams, but rather than up the ante and take the fight to McLaren and Ferrari, BMW appeared to give in. Indeed, having been the third force on the grid in early 2008, by the end of the year the German team was struggling to hold off the opposition.
Whereas most 2008 cars were 'carry-overs' from their 2007 predecessors, the F1.08 wasn't. Willy Rampf described the F1.08 as a "major step forward" and so it was. The German team, with the aid of Albert2, had really gone to town on the aero, resulting in a car that was highly sensitive even by F1's standards.
The F1.08 had a longer wheelbase than its predecessor, yet despite this it was lighter, allowing the team to play around with ballast.
Despite the concentration on all things aero, the F1.08 was best on tracks that didn't require high downforce, whereas it struggled on high downforce tracks unable to generate the required grip.
Stability under braking was much better than the F1.07, a move much appreciated by Kubica, and this was partly due to the huge gurney flap the team often ran. Not the most efficient solution but it suited Kubica, allowing him to attack the entry to corners. Heidfeld, on the hand, struggled, usually in qualifying, unable to get the front tyres up to temperature.
For some strange reason, the were also a number of instances when Kubica lost pace due to over-pressurised tyres, the F1.08 proving particularly sensitive to this. Indeed, in terms of tyres, the F1.08 has a very small performance window and it was almost certainly this that led to some of Heidfeld more uninspiring performances.
In the first half of the season, the F1.08 was up there, and though unable to take on the Ferrari or McLaren head-on, it was clearly in a position to take advantage should things go wrong. However, in the latter stages of the season, despite the introduction of new components, the car had run out of steam and was losing out to Renault, Toyota and even Toro Rosso.
Some put this down to the over complexity of the aero others to the team's inexperience, either way, in the latter stages of the season neither BMW driver was able to take the fight to the front runners, something which must have been particularly galling for Kubica since, following his second place in Japan he was still in with a chance of snatching the title in much the same was as Kimi Raikkonen a year earlier. No surprise therefore, that as the team continued to focus its concentration on its 2009 car, the Pole made his frustration public.
On reflection, the team might have achieved its self-set goals, but maybe it simply didn't set the benchmark high enough.
In its fourth season, for which Heidfeld, Kubica and Klien are all retained, the German manufacturer is looking to win the title, one cannot help but feel that this target is not going to be met quite as easily as the others.
Statistics - Prior to 2009 Season
Drivers' Titles: 0
Constructors' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 3
Grand Prix: 53
Wins: 1
Points: 272
Poles: 1
Fastest Laps: 2
Best result in 2008: 1st - Kubica (Canada)
Best qualifying 2008: Pole - Kubica (Bahrain)
Worst qualifying 2008: 16th - Heidfeld (Japan)
2008 Average grid position: Kubica (6.13) Heidfeld (9)
2008:Heidfeld out-qualified Kubica 5 times
2008:Kubica out-qualified Heidfeld 13 times
2008: Completed 2196 out of 2234 laps (98.3%)
2008: Finished 34 times from 36 starts (94.4%)
Team Structure
BMW Motorsport Director: Prof. Dr. Ing. Mario Theissen
Managing Director: Walter Riedl
Technical Director: Willy Rampf
Head of Powertrain: Markus Duesmann
Chief Designer: Christoph Zimmermann
Head of Aerodynamics: Willem Toet
Team Manager: Beat Zehnder
Head of Track Engineering: Giampaolo Dall'Ara
Race Engineer Kubica: Antonio Cuquerella
Race Engineer Heidfeld: Paul Russell
Chief Mechanic Race Team: Amiel Lindesay
Chief Engineer Test Team: Ossi Oikarinen
Head of Sponsoring and Business Relations: Guido Stalmann
Head of BMW Motorsport Communication: Jörg Kottmeier
Technical Specifications
F1.09
Chassis: carbon-fibre monocoque
Suspension: upper and lower wishbones (front and rear), inboard springs and dampers, actuated by pushrods (Sachs Race Engineering)
Brakes: six-piston brake callipers (Brembo), carbon pads and discs (Brembo, Carbone Industrie)
Transmission: 7-speed quick shift gearbox, longitudinally mounted, carbon-fibre clutch
KERS electronic system, BMW Sauber F1 Team
Chassis electronics: MES
Steering wheel: BMW Sauber F1 Team
Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza
Wheels: OZ
Dimensions
length: 4,690 mm
width: 1,800 mm
height: 1,000 mm
track width, front: 1,470 mm
track width, rear: 1,410 mm
Weight: 605 kg (incl. driver, tank empty)
P86/9
Type: naturally aspirated V8
Cylinder angle: 90 degrees
Displacement: 2,400 cc
Valves: four per cylinder
Valve train: pneumatic
Engine block: aluminium
Cylinder head: aluminium
Crankshaft: steel
Oil system: dry sump lubrication
Engine management: standard ECU (MES)
Spark plugs: NGK
Pistons: aluminium
Connecting rods: titanium
Max. engine speed: 19,000 rpm
Dimensions
Dimensions: length 518 mm
width 555 mm
height 595 mm (overall)
Weight: 95 kg
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