23/02/2005
NEWS STORY
One has to wonder about the timing of Frank Williams' announcement that BMW will supply Sauber with power-plants in 2006 and beyond.
At the best of times, F1 fans, and the media, are highly cynical, now, every engine failure that Felipe or Jacques suffer, will be greeted with raised eyebrows and a knowing smirk.
One also has to wonder just when BMW and Sauber entered negotiations and whether this had anything to do with the Swiss outfit's - clearly painful - decision to side with the 'rebels' in Brazil. Then, of course, there was the subsequent decision to switch to Michelins.
In 2004, the Swiss outfit suffered only one engine failure during a race (Massa in Australia), the team finishing second in terms of reliability (31 finishes from 36 starts) and third in terms of laps completed (2001 out of 2244).