BMW adopts Sauber name

BMW announced on November 14th that the BMW Sauber F1 Team has been registered with the FIA for the 2006 championship. Willy Rampf will remain as technical director at Hinwil, while Heinz Paschen keeps the same role at BMW headquarters in Munich.

The engine and the entire powertrain will be built at the German location and project manager Walter Riedl will co-ordinate the two bases. The team will be officially presented at Valencia in Spain on the 16th and 17th of January but meanwhile an interim chassis will run with the new BMW P86 V8 engine at Barcelona, starting on November 28th.

"The new team name more or less chose itself," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen. "It reflects the makeup of the team - run by BMW but with a core of almost 300 Sauber employees. Plus, the 2006 car was developed by Sauber's proven engineers."

Former boss Peter Sauber, who founded the team in 1993, will hold an advisory role to the new outfit. "It's nice to see that the Sauber name will continue in Formula One," he said.

"I'm particularly pleased for Sauber's many loyal fans, who I'm sure will support the team with unbowed enthusiasm in the future. The new team's name is also an expression of the huge respect which BMW has for the employees in Hinwil."

Nick Heidfeld is already confirmed as one race driver but who will be his teammate has yet to be announced. Jacques Villeneuve, who drove for Sauber this season, believes his contract will be carried over to BMW but so far the team has not made a move to name a second driver.