BMW Finally Sells Sauber Team

BMW have successfully sold the BMW Sauber team to a Swiss based company called Qadbak.

The sale comes after months of negotiations between BMW and Peter Sauber, who was desperate to save the team from extinction.

To help make the team more attractive to new buyers, BMW secured entry for the team in next year's championship, even though BMW had already confirmed that they would be leaving the sport.

The Sauber team, based in Hinwil Switzerland, boasts high tech facilities, including a state of the art wind tunnel. The team was sold for around $80 million.

Qadbak is an investment company, of which little is known due to the discreet nature of its wealthy "Middle Eastern and European based families". The company also purchased Notts County, an English football club, earlier this year.

News has also appeared in German publication Sport Bild that the team has secured a deal to use Ferrari customer engines next season.

Sauber have a good history with the Scuderia, having used Ferrari engines for many years, and was widely regarded as Ferrari's junior team, with current Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa begining their Formula One careers there.

The presence of Qadbak-Sauber team on the grid would be the third team to be using Ferrari engines, drawing the Italian team level with Mercedes, who supply Mclaren, Brawn and Force India with engines.

At the time of writing, although there is doubt about whether the Qadbak-Sauber team will be on the grid for 2010, BMW seem confident that the team will be present at the first race of the season.