Should WilliamsF1 be worried?

Should the WilliamsF1 team be worried? With the announcement by BMW Motorsport Director Dr Mario Theissen that there is a good chance that BMW will supply another team in 2006, with discussions occurring with both the Sauber and Red Bull teams, should the WilliamsF1 team be concerned as to the loss of their "works" status with their engine supplier.

In an interview for Speed TV Theissen said: “One of the teams we are talking to is Sauber. And today I would say the probability of supplying a second team next year is higher than 50 percent. No decision has been made so far. The decision should be made by the end of June. Basically in the course of the year we are asked by everybody, and we’ve certainly spoken to Red Bull as well.

As for who would get the supply of their engines it would not come down to money, even though any supply of the BMW units would not be free, but it would come down to how BMW saw the team as a partner.

Theissen added: “It won’t be money, probably. If you take this seriously you won’t earn money by supplying a second team. It is at least as costly as you are paid for it if you take it. It is about how the operations will fit each other, how the way of thinking of operating the team and running the engine fits. And if you are confident to have the right partner.

“An F1 engine is a very complex thing. You can easily make it blow up with wrong boundary conditions. It’s not just about the stability of the engine itself, but very much about the integration into the car and the operation during the weekend, so you really have to be confident to have a partner who can do the job."

The one area of concern for the WilliamsF1 team must be Theissen's next comment as it appears to indicate that the engines that are supplied to the second team would have the same specification as those supplied to the WilliamsF1 team. BMW would most likely not build a customer engine.

Theissen said: “I would favour to do the same spec. I wouldn’t favour doing two different engine programs at the same time. Basically all I can say is that we wouldn’t do two different engines.”

In previous instances of where an engine supplier has supplied two teams there has been two specifications of engine, such as in the case of Ferrari supplying engines to Sauber.

Where would this leave the WilliamsF1 team. Even though the team does have a contract with BMW till 2009 what if the second BMW supplied team is more successful than WilliamsF1. How quickly would BMW cut their loses and more solely to supply the one team. Also WilliamsF1 will lose their position of been the sole team using BMW engines. They will lose that competitive advantage that they have.

Come June 2005 it will be interesting to see the WilliamsF1 teams reaction to the announcement that another team will carry the famous BMW logo.