BMW’s potential re-entry into Formula 1 is a topic that seems to resurface every year, and every year BMW has to shoot it down. Despite the answer always being “no,” speculation around BMW’s F1 future never goes away. During Monterey Car Week, BMW M Boss Frank van Meel was interviewed by Motor1 and provided the brand’s annual F1 rumor shutdown.
When asked about whether World Endurance Championship (WEC) and International Motor Sport Association (IMSA) racing are more important to BMW than F1, van Meel said “Yes. And for us, it’s not just about the WEC, but also about IMSA. The USA, with around 40 percent of our volume, is the most important single market for BMW M. BMW grew big in the USA through motorsport. That’s why IMSA is extremely important for us.”
In those sports, the technology translates directly to the road. The race cars even use extremely similar engines to BMW M’s road cars. And that’s what BMW M is interested in, using motorsport to influence its road cars.
“We use a V8 hybrid in motorsport and have V8 hybrids in the M5 and XM. In some cases, the same engineers work on these powertrains. We can test certain aspects more quickly and in a more production-ready way through these racing series,” he said.
Of course, F1 tech can be used for road cars, too. Mercedes-AMG used its very clever turbocharging tech from F1 in the zillion-dollar AMG One hypercar. That might be a fringe use case, but it also used electric motor tech from its hybrid F1 car in its road cars, like the new electric Mercedes CLA. So it’s not like F1 wouldn’t be able to help BMW’s road cars, even if they use wildly different powertrains. However, it’s a massive additional investment and van Meel doesn’t seem to think it’s worthwhile.
“Formula 1 is too far removed for us, too much like a laboratory and not sufficiently transferable to production cars. In Formula 1, it would be a completely separate technology center, detached from everything else,” van Meel told Motor1. “Our customers and fans certainly like Formula 1, but they also prefer the more direct, production-oriented motorsport. The M story is that we bring motorsport into production vehicles. And Formula 1 simply doesn’t fit into that for us.”
So you can put any BMW F1 dreams to rest. While it’d be cool to see the blue and white scrubbing wheels with Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari, it just doesn’t work with what the brand is trying to do right now.