BMW Not Interested in Supplying Williams

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen has given a firm hint that they will stop supplying engines to Williams after saying the German carmaker is not interested in a deal anymore

Aug 2, 2005, 4:00 PM

Williams are expected to switch to Cosworth engines in 2006 after BMW decided to buy a majority stake in the Sauber team with the aim of running its own team. Despite that, BMW had said they were ready to supply Williams in 2006.

Theissen, however, says BMW are not interested anymore after they failed to reach a deal "under reasonable conditions."

"We had told Frank Williams that we would be willing to give him engines under reasonable conditions," Theissen said. "But actually, we are not really interested to do so since we have our hands full of work with building up our own team.

"We would have to add a second squad to deal with a second partner. We would not have made any money with such an engine allocation. Quite the opposite, really, we presumably would have had to support such a programme.

"If it would not have been our long term partner Williams there would not have been such an offer."