Will Sauber rescue BMW team?
"FOTA teams have immediately consulted each other and are ready to assure all the necessary support to the Swiss based team, whose membership in the association is confirmed, to continue its involvement in F1," said the teams association's secretary general Simone Perillo.
In the same statement, it was revealed that one possible FOTA initiative is the introduction of an additional car per team.
Not even three hours after BMW's shock announcement from Munich, it is already rumored that founder and 20 per cent shareholder Peter Sauber, or the Spanish outfit Epsilon Euskadi, could now step in to run the team.
German driver Nick Heidfeld admitted the news caught him completely by surprise.
"I'm not going to lose sight of my ambition to reach the top in formula one," he said. We'll now be looking at various options under these changed circumstances." (See related story)
07/29/09 BMW said possible redundancies both in Munich and at the BMW-Sauber team's Hinwil base in Switzerland "cannot be quantified at present", but it is already rumored that minority shareholder and founder Peter Sauber may step in and keep the team in operation.
"Since we only made this decision yesterday, we cannot provide any more precise information," said development board member Dr Klaus Draeger.
"We will develop and assess various scenarios and do our best to find a solution for the employees," he added. "We are aware of the responsibility we shoulder and will inform the staff as soon as we can make a clear statement."