Monthly Roundup From bmwf1blog

Can BMW Sauber challenge for the championship next year with either Robert Kubica or Nick Heidfeld? A better question I ask myself is what will the competition be like? We know 2009 is a new year with incredible rule changes that may or may not affect some teams level of competitiveness.I am not really worried about the grid hierarchy changing in 2009 and in that respect can BMW Sauber challenge for the championship in only their 4th year?

Statement from Dr. Klaus Draeger, member of the BMW AG Board of Management on Honda withdrawal from Formula One .”It is with regret that we learnt of Honda’s decision. It has no bearing on BMW’s involvement in Formula One.Our F1 involvement is an integral part of the company strategy. There is no better platform than Formula One for demonstrating our brand values.

The news of Honda pulling out of F1 has shocked the motorsports world this morning, but as we know, this has been brewing for a while now and indications something was wrong came to light in the last week when the team frantically began cutting what seemed like frivolous events. Yesterday many other F1 teams saw a rash of requests for employment from employees of Honda F1 so the writing was on the wall then.

The new aero rules have for the most part centered our attention to the shovel like front wing and the high narrow rear wing and are what us fans are talking about the most. KERS is another new addition talked about quite a bit and rounding up the talk is slicks. According to Nick Heidfeld, slicks are the biggest difference in handling of the car and not the new aero package.

BMW as well as the other car manufacturers involved in F1 have been under the gun to help bail out grand prix hosts and they’re not buying it.I’ve talked at length about the Canadian Grand Prix troubles lately and with good reason. I felt that the cancellation was unjust and I had an idea that other hosts may follow the same lead and raise doubt in how races are financed and so far they have.