(Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
As BMW Sauber's workforce reel in their parent company's shock withdrawal from Formula One, questions have inevitably been asked about whether the team can undergo the same transition that came upon Brawn GP after Honda pulled out of the sport.
Unencumbered by the controlling, unwelcome interference in Honda's F1 team from a Japanese boardroom—filled with suited businessmen with no experience or expertise in the top level of motorsport—Ross Brawn was able to transform his team from struggling backmarkers into dominant title hopefuls.
Throughout their short tenure in F1 Honda clearly had potential—building on the groundwork laid by British American Racing, they produced a race-winning car in their first season—but all too often that was squandered.
Their 2007 and 2008 efforts epitomised the proverbial committee-designed horse, a shining example of corporate mismanagement overshadowing the efforts of talented people, producing the inevitable woeful results.
But with the suits gone and the team free to go about its business, the leap in performance was instantaneous, the potential immediately fulfilled.
Such could be said to be the case with BMW Sauber. For years and years, Peter Sauber's team were midfield contenders, excellent facilities and a strong team hindered by a lack of budget and their seeming inability to produce a decent chassis.
When Williams refused BMW's help in designing their cars, the Bavarian manufacturer jumped ship, and found a willing collaborator in Sauber.
BMW's corporate attitude to Formula One was worlds away from that of Honda. While Honda's head office constantly intervened in the team's affairs, replacing key technical staff seemingly at the drop of the hat, BMW left their team very much to its own devices, in the capable hands of the long-time chief of their F1 programme, Mario Theissen.
Yet still the corporate overtones of BMW's effort shone through, with their emphasis on performance targets and clean-cut image, based on typical Swiss-German efficiency. From 2006 to 2008, they duly met all their targets, Robert Kubica delivering the team's maiden victory in the last Canadian Grand Prix.
Then, in 2009, a poor approach to the new regulations hit the team hard. An ineffective KERS unit, combined with a sudden lack of aerodynamic efficiency, saw the team plunge down the championship tables.
Kubica came within an ace of a podium in Melbourne and Nick Heidfeld delivered a somewhat fortuitous second place at Sepang, but the team has hardly troubled the scorers since. So, for performance reasons alone, the decision by the German company to quit F1 is not entirely surprising.
However, the prospects of BMW donating its lavish facilities and a generous stipend to some enterprising buyer, in the manner of Brawn GP, are slim.
Peter Sauber is the most obvious choice to take control of the team—he retains a small shareholding—but he has already said that he has no interest in taking on the job of team principal again.
In fact, perhaps the only reason Sauber still has a stake in the outfit is because of complex Swiss laws regarding the operation of foreign businesses on their turf, and it is because of this that he will likely hold onto his shares regardless of who buys the team.
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