The rising Formula 1 powerhouse of the previous three seasons, BMW found itself in unfamiliar, and hugely disappointing, territory in 2009 as its once metronomic progress up the grid went totally awry.
And while the Hinwil team managed to salvage some respectively from the year in the season’s final months, its German manufacturer owner had already announced its F1 exit strategy by then meaning its four-year stint as a team owner ended on a low note.
Until 2009, BMW’s factory Formula 1 programme was absolutely on target.
It scored healthy points in its debut year in 2006, it became a podium regular in 2007, and it claimed its first win in 2008.
In fact last year went a little too well for BMW’s gameplan, as Robert Kubica ended up leading the championship.
A title challenge wasn’t anticipated until this season, and rather than ramping up its efforts to try and stay in front of McLaren and Ferrari, BMW stuck to its schedule and diverted resources from the ’08 car to get an early start on this year’s F1.09 – confident that it would be ahead of the game with the new rules and would be a sure-fire championship threat.
But it wasn’t, and the team’s failure to meet its 2009 goals made it a lot easier for BMW to pull the plug when the parent company got twitchy about F1’s cost and environmental image in a tough year for the car industry.
The team will live on thanks to former boss Peter Sauber, but BMW is gone, and it only took half a season of underperformance to bring an end to what had hitherto been a highly successful project.
BMW Sauber’s year actually got off to a deceptively good start.
Kubica qualified fourth in Australia – in retrospect a heroic achievement – then got the fragile soft tyres out of the way early on, allowing him to charge into contention for victory on hard rubber as others floundered on softs in the final stint.
Sebastian Vettel’s reluctance to relinquish second meant Kubica’s race ended in the wall, but had he successfully passed the Red Bull then he would have stood a great chance of beating Jenson Button to victory, for the Brawn would have been hard-pressed to resist the BMW’s tyre advantage.
The car didn’t seem so competitive in Malaysia, but bravely staying on intermediates in the fluctuating weather as others made multiple pit stops then allowed Nick Heidfeld to take second at Sepang.
Those brilliant drives had masked the F1.09’s shortcomings, though.
Despite starting development early, BMW’s KERS was not very effective – and its installation in the sidepods forced major and costly aerodynamic compromises.
Kubica rarely used KERS at all, his tall – and therefore heavy – build made it too much of a disadvantage and within four races Heidfeld had given up on the device as well.
It would be August before the redesigned KERS-less sidepod package was ready to race, and BMW’s double diffuser didn’t really prove effective until matched to a new gearbox casing in late September.
In the meantime, far from fighting for the title, Kubica and Heidfeld were fighting to progress beyond Q1 and to get anywhere near the top 10 in the races.
A smattering of small upgrades allowed them to scrape the occasional point, but it was going to take more than tinkering to turn the F1.09 into a contender.
And by the time it was competitive, the team’s fate was sealed – BMW announcing in late July that it would leave the sport after 2009, and admitting that its poor form was a factor.
It had also been the main cheerleader for KERS, standing firm when others called for the controversial system to be abandoned.
It was deeply ironic therefore that KERS was so critical in BMW’s 2009 failure and was soon ditched by the team – another cause for boardroom concern as the regenerative energy device was viewed as the kind of ‘green technology’ BMW desperately wanted F1 to embrace.
To their huge credit, the BMW crew kept working on developments until the very end, which means they will carry a lot of momentum into the new Sauber era.
Their efforts also allowed BMW to go out on a relative high, as the team mounted a mini-resurgence and managed to snatch sixth in the constructors’ championship – a position that seemed highly unlikely early in the year.
The big breakthrough came at Spa, where the aero upgrades helped Heidfeld and Kubica to third and fifth on the grid, and top five finishes in the race.
Heidfeld followed that up with fifth places in Japan and Abu Dhabi, while Kubica produced one of the drives of the year in Brazil – somehow manhandling a skittish dry set-up car onto the fourth row in wet qualifying, and then charging to second, right on winner Mark Webber’s tail, in the race.
It showed what might have been had BMW got its sums right at the start of the year.
Twelve months earlier, Kubica had been openly furious at his team’s decision not to push ahead with a 2008 title chase and to focus on 2009 instead.
When reminded of those comments this year just before announcing he was leaving for Renault, Kubica said there was no point being bitter in hindsight.
But he did add that he didn’t think he would have to tell his next team when it should be chasing the championship...
Highlight: Kubica’s outstanding drive in Brazil, which was easily forgotten amid the title excitement.
Lowlight: BMW quitting just a few months after it had been fighting for the title.
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