MOTORSPORT: BMW set to quit F1

An emergency press conference has been called at BMW's Munich headquarters tomorrow morning (6pm EST tonight) leading to speculation the company is set to announce its withdrawal from Formula One at the end of the season.

Few details have been given by BMW -- even BMW Australia admitted it had yet to receive any word about the conference -- but the company has revealed it relates to "current developments in motorsport". It will be hosted by Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the board, Dr. Klaus Draegar, director of development, and Dr. Mario Theissen, Motorsport Director, which points to an F1 exit as the most likely scenario.

Having entered the season with hopes of challenging for the world title the BMW.Sauber team has struggled to even score points regularly. It is currently eighth in the Constructor's championship ahead of only perennial backmarkers Scuderia Toro Rosso and Force India. Driver's Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica are 13th and 15th respectively have only scored eight points between them.

Despite challenging for last year's driver's world title with Kubica, the team cut off development of the 2008 car early to focus on this year's model in the hopes of getting the jump on the competition. The team invested heavily in the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) but abandoned it after failing to get a performance edge out of the technology.

Ironically, Theissen was earlier this week commenting on the BMW.Sauber website about the dramatic turnaround of the McLaren team and was hopeful that his team could perform a similar feat.

"It is remarkable how quickly the balance of power has shifted this year," Theissen said. "The entire field is tightly packed, and whoever manages to enhance the performance of their car significantly can make massive strides forward. That is encouraging, and provides a big incentive for our team."

The departure of BMW would be another major blow for Formula One which has endured a nightmare season to date.

The under-performing Honda quit the sport at the end of last year blaming the Global Financial Crisis and efforts to cut spending in the sport have been bogged down in politics.

FIA president Max Mosley and the team's association, FOTA, have spent much of the year engaged in a bitter power struggle, causing heavy damage to the sport's profile. Commercial boss Bernie Eccelstone also caused further damage to the sport's reputation when he was quoted in an interview complimenting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein and deposed Afghanistan rulers the Taliban.

BMW looked set to join the rest of the teams in signing a new commercial agreement to stay in F1 until the end of 2012 as late as last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

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