Race Footage

The strange story of BMW in Formula One has come to an equally strange end. The iconic German car company has completed its withdrawal from the sport by selling its F1 operations to Qadback.

Despite the odd name, Qadback is not a game in a Harry Potter book. Instead, it is an investment conglomerate made up of unnamed parties from the Middle East. The company appears to have no particular experience in auto racing, which begs the question of how the company will be run at the factory and on the track. Peter Sauber who owned 20 percent of the team with BMW will remain a partial owner.

The interesting party in the deal is Mario Theissen. He has been with BMW since 1977, but was a uniform target of sympathy throughout the paddock this year as BMW apparently made the decision to leave the sport without telling him. Will he stay with BMW or will he continue with the team in its new form? The answer is unclear.

The Qadback purchase has another odd twist. BMW failed to sign the Concorde Agreement this summer that would have guaranteed its position in the field for the 2010 championship. F1 has just announced that Lotus will return to the field and be the thirteenth team. The grid is usually limited to 13 teams, so that would seem to leave the BMW/Qadback team on the outside looking in. The FIA has apparently put it in position 14 and suggested that 14 teams may be allowed next year. Still, that seems a pretty iffy proposition on which to base the purchase of a team.

The decision by BMW to leave Formula One is clearly economic related. Still, it is odd. While BMW is pulling out, Mercedes is doubling up its position by allegedly buying 75 percent of the Brawn GP team to go with its McLaren partnership. The fact BMW literally spent a billion dollars on its team and then just walked away is simply staggering.