BMW Motorsport
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Throughout its history, BMW has been involved in a range of motorsport activities, including Formula Two, Touring car racing and sportscar racing. BMW is currently active in Formula One.
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[edit] History
[edit] 1940 — 1980
BMW used its sporty 328 model as the basis for its early efforts in the Formula 2 series, a stepping stone to Formula 1; the 328 occasionally participated in F1 races. BMW ran its own team, but other smaller teams such as Veritas, AFM, and Jicey also used the 328. However, after the death of the initial F2 series in 1955 and its resurrection the following year, BMW's management decided not to participate in open wheel racing.
In 1967, the Formula 2 regulations were changed to allow 1600cc motors, and BMW's new management was more open to the idea of open wheel racing. In the 1968 season, the company joined with Lola, using their 100 chassis. BMW sponsored drivers Jo Siffert and Hubert Hahne. For 1969, the team switched to Lola 102s, and used a new development of BMW's 1600cc engine, dubbed the M12. Siffert and Hahne remained; Gerhard Mitter and Dieter Quester shared a third car. Halfway through the season, BMW debuted their own chassis, the 269, at the Hockenheimring. Mitter was killed during development of the 269.
For the 1970 F2 season, BMW debuted the 270 chassis, and campaigned with Jo Siffert, Hubert Hahne, Dieter Quester, and Jacky Ickx. The team won every race of the season. However, in 1971, BMW's involvement was pulled back, with the team only supplying engines for Dieter Quester's Eifelland. With a change in the F2 engine regulations to 2000ccs, BMW went on hiatus for the 1972 season.
When BMW's returned to F2 in 1973, the company again supplied only engines. Although officially backing the March team's effort for drivers Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Jean-Pierre Jarier, they also supplied engines for teams such as Beta Racing and Brian Lewis Racing. From 1973 to the end of Formula 2 in 1984, BMW supplied engines to the championship-winning drivers in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, and 1982.
[edit] 1980s — present
In 1980, BMW announced their development of a turbocharged motor for the Brabham F1 team. The engine first raced in the 1982 season. The M12/13 engine won at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix at the hands of Nelson Piquet; Riccardo Patrese was the team's other driver. The following season, BMW supplied engines to the ATS team; the factory-backed Brabham took four victories on its way to Piquet's championship win. Two more victories came in 1984, and BMW added Arrows to its list of teams who received its engines. In 1985, Piquet's Brabham, who was now teamed with Marc Surer, managed only one win.
In 1986, BMW started to supply engines for the new Benetton team, who earned the only win for a BMW engine at the hands of Gerhard Berger. However, the factory-backed effort at Brabham met with little success with the return of Patrese and Derek Warwick. At the end of the 1986 season, BMW announced it would drop out of Formula 1 at the end of the 1987 season.
BMW's M12/13 engine, however, continued to be used, because Megatron bought the rights to the engines for the Arrows team. The Ligier team was also supplied with the engine for the 1987 season. Following the 1988 season, turbocharged motors were banned, and Arrows ended its use of the former BMW engine.
The BMW M12/13 Turbocharged I4 engine was famous during its life for being the first Formula 1 engine capable of 1000hp in racing trim, although it was capable of nearly 1400hp for qualifying with modification of its boost.
BMW had various touring and sportscar successes throughout the rest of the 1980s and 1990s following its exit from Formula 1. In 1997, BMW announced that it had developed a partnership with Williams Grand Prix Engineering. The initial development of this partnership was BMW's sportscar effort, using chassis built by Williams and BMW M70 V12 engines. This culminated in BMW's victory at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans with the BMW V12 LMR.
Following the win, the second stage of BMW's partnership with Williams began, with BMW developing the powerful E41 V10 for Formula 1. The new Williams-BMW debuted in the 2000 season, driven by Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button. In 2001, Schumacher took 3 wins and newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya took his first win. A lone win for Schumacher followed in 2002, but Williams-BMW returned to success in 2003, with two wins each for Schumacher and Montoya. Montoya was the lone winner in 2004.
In 2005, disputes led to a rapid decline in the partnership of BMW and Williams. Constant disagreements over the cause of technical failures in the car led BMW to discontinue development of the P84/5 V10 as the season progressed, leading to no victories for the team's new driver line-up of Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld. Consequently, the car finished a distant 5th in the constructors' championship.
[edit] BMW Sauber F1
Wanting a split from their failing relationship with Williams, BMW's executives decided that adding an F1 team to the company's motorsport division, thus removing the necessity for a partner, was the only viable solution. Enticed by Sauber's new multi-million dollar research and development facility, which included an advanced windtunnel setup, BMW choose to offer a buyout to Peter Sauber rather than scramble to build the facilities themselves. Sauber took the offer, and the buyout went through; the team began racing under the BMW-Sauber F1 flag in 2006.
