BMW's involvement in Formula One predates the Sauber team. Private entries using the pre-war BMW 328 chassis appeared in the 1952 and 1953 German Grands Prix, while BMW-derived cars built by the AFM and Veritas companies ran occasionally from 1951 to 1953 during a period when the championship was run to Formula Two regulations.
In the 1960s, the German Grand Prix was often held concurrently with a Formula Two race on the same circuit, allowing BMW F2 cars to compete. In 1967, BMW entered Hubert Hahne in a Lola F2 chassis powered by an enlarged BMW engine. For 1968, Hahne finished tenth — BMW's best result to that point. In 1969, BMW entered three of its own 269 F2 chassis for Hahne, Gerhard Mitter, and Dieter Quester; Mitter was fatally injured in practice and the team withdrew.
Following Renault's turbocharged Formula One programme from 1977, BMW announced its own turbo engine development in April 1980. The resulting M12/13 engine was derived from the M10, a four-cylinder 1.5-litre unit originally designed in the late 1950s. Developed by Paul Rosche under Jochen Neerpasch, a prototype produced 600 bhp at 2.8 bar using a KKK turbocharger and Bosch fuel injection.
BMW negotiated an exclusive supply agreement with the Brabham team. Testing began in late 1980 with a converted BT49; Gordon Murray designed the new BT50 around the engine. The BT50 made its race weekend appearance at the 1981 British Grand Prix, recording 192 mph (309 km/h) through the speed trap — 15 mph (24 km/h) faster than the Cosworth-powered BT49. BMW recorded its first Formula One victory at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix, where Nelson Piquet led home Riccardo Patrese.
In 1983, the improved BT52 allowed Piquet to win the Drivers' Championship, overtaking Alain Prost in the standings. Brabham finished third in the Constructors' Championship. BMW also supplied the M12/13 to ATS from 1983; to Arrows from 1984; and to Benetton from 1986. Benetton's best season with BMW power came in 1986: 19 points, the Mexican Grand Prix win, and two pole positions with Gerhard Berger and Teo Fabi. Arrows' best result under BMW power — fifth in the 1988 Constructors' Championship — came while running the engines under the Megatron badge after BMW withdrew official backing. Turbocharged engines were banned for 1989, ending the M12/13's tenure: it had won nine Grands Prix, the 1983 Drivers' Championship, 14 pole positions, and 13 fastest laps.
In 1998 BMW signed an exclusive contract to supply engines to Williams, which had lost its Renault supply at the end of 1997. Williams had won the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997 with Renault. BMW spent 18 months building the normally aspirated 3-litre V10 E41 engine; Williams used rebadged Renault units (Mecachrome, then Supertec) in the interim.
The E41 debuted in the FW22 in 2000, driven by Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button; Schumacher scored a podium on the engine's first race. Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship that year. For 2001, BMW produced the more aggressive P80 engine. Schumacher and new teammate Juan Pablo Montoya scored four race wins; the FW23 was especially strong at power circuits such as Hockenheim and Monza. In 2002, with the FW24, Williams finished second in the Constructors' Championship, though Ferrari's F2002 dominated both titles. The 2003 FW25 was competitive in the second half of the season; both drivers won twice and Montoya remained in championship contention until the penultimate round. The 2004 FW26 featured a radical nose designed by Antonia Terzi that proved ineffective; Williams slipped to fourth in the Constructors' Championship, with Montoya's Brazilian Grand Prix win its sole victory.
By 2005, the relationship had deteriorated. BMW believed its engines could win championships but were being constrained by the chassis. BMW offered to buy Williams outright; Frank Williams refused. BMW instead bought the rival Sauber team in June 2005.
BMW retained the Sauber name throughout the 2006–2009 seasons. The team's livery used BMW's traditional blue and white with a hint of red. Existing Sauber sponsors Petronas and Credit Suisse renewed their contracts; Intel joined as a technology partner. The new 2.4-litre P86 V8 engine replaced the Petronas-badged Ferrari engines Sauber had used since 1997.
The team launched with Nick Heidfeld, signed from Williams, alongside 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, whose existing Sauber contract was honoured. Robert Kubica was signed as third driver. Villeneuve scored the team's first points with seventh at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Heidfeld took the team's first podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix from tenth on the grid. That race also marked Kubica's debut as a replacement for Villeneuve, who had crashed heavily at the German Grand Prix; the team later made the driver change permanent. Kubica scored a second podium at the Italian Grand Prix, running third for most of the race and briefly leading during the first pit stop cycle. The team scored 36 points and finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship, up from Sauber's eighth with 20 points in 2005.
BMW announced on 19 October 2006 that Kubica would partner Heidfeld for 2007, with Sebastian Vettel as test and reserve driver and Timo Glock as second test driver. The F1.07 was launched on 16 January 2007. BMW Sauber established itself as the third-fastest team behind Ferrari and McLaren. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Heidfeld scored the team's best result to that point with second place while Kubica suffered a high-speed crash; initially reported as a broken leg, his injuries proved to be a sprained ankle and concussion. Vettel replaced Kubica at the United States Grand Prix and finished eighth, becoming at that time the youngest driver to score a Formula One World Championship point. Kubica returned at the French Grand Prix. The team scored 101 points; following McLaren's exclusion from the Constructors' Championship, BMW Sauber was promoted to second.
The F1.08 was launched on 14 January 2008 at BMW Welt in Munich. Kubica took the team's first ever pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix, beating Felipe Massa by under three hundredths of a second, and the team finished third and fourth in the race, briefly leading the Constructors' Championship. Kubica took second at Monaco, trailing only Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. BMW Sauber achieved a one-two finish at the Canadian Grand Prix — Kubica winning and Heidfeld taking second — after Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen collided in the pitlane. Kubica led the Drivers' Championship after Canada. Development was then switched to the 2009 car, a decision Kubica opposed; form dropped in the second half of the season, with Renault, Toyota, and even Toro Rosso outpacing the team by year's end.
Despite targeting 2009 as a championship challenge, the F1.09 was uncompetitive from the start. After six races the team had scored only six points and occupied eighth place in the Constructors' Championship. A planned KERS upgrade for Turkey could not be made to fit the car; Mario Theissen announced after the British Grand Prix that KERS development had been halted, leaving only Ferrari and McLaren using the system. BMW had been one of the strongest proponents of KERS.
Following a board meeting on 28 July, BMW announced withdrawal from Formula One at the end of 2009; chairman Norbert Reithofer described the decision as strategic, citing the global financial recession and frustration with technical regulations that limited road-relevant technology development. A proposed sale to Qadbak Investments Limited was announced on 15 September 2009, but Qadbak was subsequently revealed to be a shell company with no assets or investors, and the deal collapsed. On 27 November 2009, Peter Sauber agreed to repurchase the team conditional on receiving an FIA entry for 2010. The FIA granted the entry on 3 December 2009 after Toyota left the sport.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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