BMW Sauber To Exit Formula 1

BMW Sauber is planning to withdraw from the Formula 1 at the end of 2009. International media have been summoned to a press conference at the German marque’s Munich headquarters to discuss current developments in motor sport. BMW has had a disappointing season and a lack of progress in overcoming the difficulties has led to the BMW board to have called time on the Swiss based BMW Sauber project.

Present at the emergency press conference will be team boss Mario Theissen as well as BMW board chairman Norbert Reithofer and director for development Klaus Draeger. It is speculated BMW, having bought the independent Sauber team at the end of 2005, may announce it will instead turn its attention to other forms of motor sport, including perhaps a return to Le Mans. The timing of the announcement is almost certainly because BMW has not signed the new Concorde Agreement, which is set to be announced imminently and would have bound the manufacturer to F1 until the end of 2012.