Mario Theissen talks about the demise of BMW Sauber in 2009, the missed opportunities—and whether a young Sebastian Vettel could have saved the project.
Was the demise of BMW Sauber in the 2009 Formula 1 season inevitable? At the members’ regulars’ table on the YouTube channel of Formel1.de, former BMW sports boss Mario Theissen described how he experienced the situation.
“You have to look at a decision like this from different perspectives,” explained Theissen. “For me as team boss, it was unfortunate—it was the wrong moment and difficult for the whole team to digest. In that respect, you could call [the withdrawal] a mistake—especially because it was the first time we had fallen short of our goals.”
By 2009, BMW Sauber had made rapid progress in some areas, transforming itself from a solid midfield team into a serious contender for podium finishes and victories.
Its only Grand Prix victory in 2008 at the Formula 1 race in Canada is famous – a double victory by Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. Team boss Theissen also stood on the podium at the time.
BMW Sauber falls into a slump in 2009
However, BMW Sauber was unable to build on this success in the 2009 season under the new Formula 1 regulations: instead of continuing to improve, its form declined.
Nevertheless, Theissen remained convinced that the team was on the right track: “I was absolutely certain that we had the potential and the tools to be back in contention in the coming years.”
A press conference changes everything
But it didn’t get that far: in the summer of 2009, BMW called a press conference at short notice and announced its withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of the year. Theissen himself learned “very shortly” before the date that the project would end – due to the tense situation in the global economic crisis at the time.
There wasn’t much room for negotiation. “The company has a lot of work to do,” explains Theissen. “And when the board says, ‘This is no longer the place where we want to present the brand,’ there are few arguments you can make against it.”
Which arguments were ultimately decisive, how close the previous partnership with Williams really was, what distinguished the driver duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, and whether the young Sebastian Vettel could have saved the BMW project – Theissen discusses these and other topics in a new video on the Formel1.de YouTube channel.
