Sad to see BMW's last F1 race. A 5th place for Quick Nick and 10th for Kubi after contact and a spin. Could have hoped for better, but... Ironic that David and Bob on Speed both said that BMW seems to have the best engine now. Hummm. So long boys and hope to see you back once we get some enlightened management back into BMW who understand the core values of this company.
HUGE shame, I always was proud to be a BMW owner and see them have such a great F1 team, Sad to see them go,
So, what will BMW do with all that $$$$?? Back to LeMans? More support for independent BMW Race Teams (like Turner Motorsport)? Other endeavors?
I found it extremely ironic that right after BMW announced their departure from F1 I got an e-mail from BMWNA advertising BMW Sauber F1 goods and asking to support the team. It was a good run and I too am saddened to see them go.
Prop up the stock price? Frankly, I don't really care if BMW is in the F1 circus. Yes, it was seriously cool that they were the last manufacturer to win with a stock block, but those days are gone. Now, everyone there is simply a Bernie Puppet. Aside from Ferrari, does anyone seriously believe anyone buys cars based on F1 success? "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" applies, if at all, to stock-based (or at least silhouette) series, not formula car series. BMW made its motorsports mark in sedan racing. That's where they should be now and in the foreseeable future, not pounding sand down the rathole that is F1.
The logical business side of me understands the reasons not to be running this series, but gosh I will miss my BMW mug filled with tea while watching the pretty blue and white cars running on Sunday mornings. Maybe we will get some more proto-types in the other series.
Performance is now derived from a Fluid Dynamics computer simulation. Human ingenuity no longer seems important, or at least is intangible. You don't see crazy ideas in F1 anymore, just optimization toward a theoretical ideal. http://bmwcca.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=964&size=big&cat=&ppuser=147 My interest has moved elsewhere.
