In 1988, Brabham temporarily withdrew from the sport and BMW Sauber withdrew its official backing from the engines, which were still used by the Arrows team under the Megatron badge.
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18 Facts About BMW Sauber
2.
BMW Sauber decided to return to Formula One in the late 1990s by signing an exclusive contract with the Williams team, which needed a new long-term engine supplier after the withdrawal of Renault in 1997.
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3.
BMW Sauber project lasted from 2006 until 2009, and resulted in a substantial increase in competitiveness for the Swiss former privateer team.
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4.
Early years of the post-war World Drivers' Championship saw private BMW Sauber racing cars, based on the pre-war BMW Sauber 328 chassis, entered in the 1952 and 1953 German Grands Prix.
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5.
BMW Sauber-derived cars were entered by the Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau and Veritas companies in occasional races from 1951 to 1953.
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6.
BMW Sauber then entered three of its own 269 F2 chassis for the 1969 race, for the trio of Hahne, Gerhard Mitter and Dieter Quester, but Mitter was fatally injured in a practice accident and the remainder of the team withdrew from the race.
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7.
In 1979 and 1980, BMW Sauber provided a fleet of identical M1 cars for Formula One and other professional drivers to race in the BMW Sauber M1 Procar Championship, the rounds of which were held during Grand Prix race weekends, thus strengthening the marque's ties with the sport.
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8.
Brabham began the 1982 season with two BMW Sauber-powered BT50 chassis at the South African Grand Prix, where Piquet and Patrese qualified second and fourth respectively, but retired early in the race.
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9.
BMW Sauber began supplying its engines to the German ATS team this season, but sole driver Manfred Winkelhock was unable to score any points.
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11.
BMW offered to buy the team outright in the hope of gaining overall control of its Formula One endeavours, but Frank Williams refused; as a result, BMW chose to buy the rival Sauber team instead for 2006 and end its deal with Williams.
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12.
The Sauber team's existing major sponsors, Petronas and Credit Suisse, renewed their contracts with BMW.
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13.
On 19 October 2006, BMW Sauber announced that Robert Kubica would partner Nick Heidfeld for the 2007 Formula One season with Sebastian Vettel taking the test and reserve driver role.
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14.
BMW Sauber started the season well with Kubica narrowly missing out on pole after a mistake in his main qualifying lap in Melbourne.
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15.
BMW Sauber later retired after being hit by Kazuki Nakajima but Heidfeld finished second.
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16.
The lack of development was reflected with a drop of form throughout the second half of the season, causing BMW Sauber to be outpaced by Renault, Toyota and even Toro Rosso by the end of the season.
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17.
Heidfeld then secured the team's first podium of the year in Malaysia, but after 6 races BMW Sauber had collected a mere 6 points, and occupied 8th place in the Constructors' Championship out of 10 teams.
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18.
On 15 September 2009 it was announced that BMW Sauber had secured a buyer, Qadbak Investments Limited which said to represent European and Middle Eastern interests.
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