BMW buys Sauber

Peter Sauber and Le Crédit Suisse, a swiss bank, will sell the majority of their shares to BMW. Early 2006, BMW will the take over the reins of Sauber and create a new team called BMW. Peter Sauber should work as a counselor, as will no longer rule the team. The Hinwill factory will continue to be a swiss company anyway but it’ll be a sattelite of BMW, which will increase the number of its employees.
The transfer of share will be made in two times, BMW first buying the majority of those held by Peter Sauber, then, in 2008, purchasing those of the swiss bank.
Peter Sauber, 61, considers the purchase of his team by BMW as a good thing, since it’s become very hard for teams like his to keep up with top teams in terms of performance. Since the arrival of important car makers like Renault, Toyota or Mercedes, raising funds has become harder and harder for independant private teams. Max Mosley wants to prevent independant teams from leaving the F1 by setting new rules imposing to cut the costs by 90% in 2008. By this time, those teams won’t have left, chances are they’ll have been bought by carmakers. Too late, Max…