BMW sell F1 team back to Sauber

[AndrewW-G]

As per title, good news for F1 and the 250 people who are going to keep their jobs (and not so good news for the 150 who wont )

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80350

[belleair302]

I feel that BMW have not done the decent thing regarding their F1 effort. From the start it was a weak effort and not fully supported by the main board. The announcement of the sale was poor and hopefully now some good will come from the disaster that is BMW's PR effort in F1.

Should have just producd some decent engines and not chased M-B into team ownership / stake within a team.

[deadslow]

Yep, agree, BMW got their exit 100% wrong, and in the process left the surviving team at a massive disadvantage.

Good for P Sauber, and all best luck to him.

[JulesV]

Good to see Peter Sauber back in charge, he has always seemed a thoroughly decent chap to me. Given that VW are said to be looking at F1, I thought that Sauber-VW had a nice ring to it. Maybe a return to Mercedes power to tide them over.....

[zac510]

It says the sale is on condition that they get a place in the 2010 championship which is looking increasingly less likely isn't it?

[pauly]

zac510 said:

It says the sale is on condition that they get a place in the 2010 championship which is looking increasingly less likely isn't it?

I don't know,I think its pretty likely they will be there and highly unlikely that the USF1 team will be.

[anonymous-user]

When will they be told if they have an entry or not? Time isn't exactly standing still and they have to build a new car to accommodate the ban on refueling.

[Munter]

pauly said:

zac510 said:

It says the sale is on condition that they get a place in the 2010 championship which is looking increasingly less likely isn't it?

I don't know,I think its pretty likely they will be there and highly unlikely that the USF1 team will be.

Either one of the new guys will not make it this year. Likely. Or they'll run out of cash before next year. Even more likely. Thus opening a space for the 2012 season at worst I'd suggest.

[spunkytherabbit]

I thought they were first on the reserve list, and the FOTA members had voted to NOT give them an automatic entry because of the concerns over the somewhat shady background of the Qadbak organisation bank rolling the original buy out?

I would imagine with Qadbak out the picture and Sauber back in charge, the FOTA stance will change. Let’s face it Peter Sauber wouldn't have committed to buying back his team if he hadn't already laid the ground to having an entry for 2010. The Toyota slot is available after all as they have made it clear they are dissolving the race team and not selling it on as a going concern. Sauber may even have bought their entry off of them.

[coetzeeh]

It will be great to see the Sauber name back on the F1 grid.

They were they kind of team one never expected a huge amount of, but yet they often suprised the stronger teams with their pace on a limited budget.

[anonymous-user]

It's the FIA who choose the teams who have an entry, not FOTA. Peter hasn't committed to buying the team yet, the deal is off if he isn't given a slot in 2010.

Edited by johnfelstead on Monday 30th November 13:49

[skwdenyer]

spunkytherabbit said:

I thought they were first on the reserve list, and the FOTA members had voted to NOT give them an automatic entry because of the concerns over the somewhat shady background of the Qadbak organisation bank rolling the original buy out?

I would imagine with Qadbak out the picture and Sauber back in charge, the FOTA stance will change. Let’s face it Peter Sauber wouldn't have committed to buying back his team if he hadn't already laid the ground to having an entry for 2010. The Toyota slot is available after all as they have made it clear they are dissolving the race team and not selling it on as a going concern. Sauber may even have bought their entry off of them.

FOTA (mid-2009 edition) would probably have given Sauber a 14th place; FOTA (late-2009 edition, featuring the new teams) won't, because it increases the competition for manufacturers' points. I'm not sure FOTA were too worried about Qadbak per se.

Sauber has only committed to buying the team if there's an entry. He's not risking much

The Toyota slot is not yet available; Toyota are actively trying to "lease out" their entry (and facilities and 2010 car design), because otherwise they'll get hit with a $150m penalty as well as the punitive German redundancy payouts.

[spunkytherabbit]

skwdenyer said:

spunkytherabbit said:

I thought they were first on the reserve list, and the FOTA members had voted to NOT give them an automatic entry because of the concerns over the somewhat shady background of the Qadbak organisation bank rolling the original buy out?

I would imagine with Qadbak out the picture and Sauber back in charge, the FOTA stance will change. Let’s face it Peter Sauber wouldn't have committed to buying back his team if he hadn't already laid the ground to having an entry for 2010. The Toyota slot is available after all as they have made it clear they are dissolving the race team and not selling it on as a going concern. Sauber may even have bought their entry off of them.

FOTA (mid-2009 edition) would probably have given Sauber a 14th place; FOTA (late-2009 edition, featuring the new teams) won't, because it increases the competition for manufacturers' points. I'm not sure FOTA were too worried about Qadbak per se.

Sauber has only committed to buying the team if there's an entry. He's not risking much

The Toyota slot is not yet available; Toyota are actively trying to "lease out" their entry (and facilities and 2010 car design), because otherwise they'll get hit with a $150m penalty as well as the punitive German redundancy payouts.

Yeah the news reports surfaced about Toyota trying to lease out their entry after I posted. I'd be surprised if Sauber hadn't already made them an offer. The assumption there is that Toyota would do the sensible thing and just hand it over to him for a fee to avoid the penalty... and we all know that Toyota couldn't do things sensibly in F1 even if lives depended on it, what with all their success doing it 'the Toyota way'...