Zoom BMW one of nine teams demanding concessions to compete in the 2010 season

A disastrous outing for the German-owned squad at the famous Monaco Grand Prix was not the final straw for BMW's executive board, team boss Mario Theissen insists.

In the Principality, BMW Sauber's disappointing 2009 season went from bad to worse, as the F1.09s qualified poorly before Nick Heidfeld finished just 11th.

Amid the sport's political crisis and the worldwide economic slump, some speculated that BMW is moving closer to scrapping the entire F1 project.

FIA President Max Mosley, for instance, cannot understand how carmaker-backed teams are currently fighting tooth and nail to prevent 45m euro budget caps from replacing annual budgets approaching half a billion per team.

"I cannot imagine the main board of BMW continuing to spend 300 million on Formula One, or even the board of Toyota," he told Deutsche Presse Agentur.

"Some of these companies have stopped serving coffee at the meetings, they have switched off half the lights or only using one lift instead of two. How can you then spend that sort of money on Formula One?" Mosley added.

However, BMW Motorsport Director Theissen dismissed reports that it was Monaco that sealed the team's fate.

"An individual result has nothing to do with the evaluation of our Formula One engagement," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Source: GMM
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