BMW Sauber headed into the 2006 season as a constructor in its own right after purchasing the Swiss-based Sauber Petronas team. BMW supplied its V10 engines to Williams in what was a technical partnership between the two parties and under the BMW Williams banner, would secure ten race wins with the squad over five years.

Perhaps restless at not being able to gain Championship glory, the Board at BMW announced mid-way through the 2005 season that they would take control of Sauber Petronas.

Nick Heidfeld joined the BMW Sauber team from Williams while Jacques Villeneuve was retained from the Sauber contract to partner the German. Mario Theissen remained in charge of BMW's motorsport activities, increasing staffing levels and investing heavily in the engineering side of the team led by Will Rampf.

Rampf worked with BMW South Africa between 1989 and 1993 and invited to attend Peter Sauber's first Formula One race at Kyalami in '93, Rampf jumped at the chance to join the team as a race engineer before returning to BMW in 1997 to run the Paris-Dakar programme. Two years later he was back to Sauber as Technical Director and with BMW taking over the squad, it was little surprise that the Bavarian would oversee the F1.06 for BMW's debut season.

As far as debut seasons go in Formula One, the team were content with its 36 points and fifth position in the championship standings ahead of Toyota.

The season started well with Villeneuve and Heidfeld proving fairly evenly matched with the duo picking up points on a regular basis. The German Grand Prix would prove to be Villeneuve's final race for the team as he and the team management fell out over a first lap collision that eliminated the former champion and team-mate Heidfeld.

This promoted test driver Robert Kubica up to the race seat and allowed the squad to draft in the little known F3 racer Sebastian Vettel. The combination worked well from the outset with Vettel impressing in his Friday practice role while Kubica proved to be something of a star in the making.

Heidfeld took a solid third in the Hungarian Grand Prix but more impressively, Kubica took his first podium in just his third Grand Prix at Monza. Were it not for an incorrect call for dry tyres in China, Kubica would undoubtedly have taken another podium the very next time out in China.

After an impressive debut season, the team remained largely unchanged for 2007 and would go on to score 101 points and finish second to Ferrari in the constructors' championship. The highlight of this most successful season was Heidfeld's second position in the Canadian Grand Prix, but it was a disaster for Kubica who was fortunate to escape serious injury after a massive accident. The Pole would not score a podium, with his best result being fourth position.

While the team scored solid points all season, they could not challenge Ferrari or McLaren for pure pace. The team are aiming to close the gap on the top two teams in 2008 with Heidfeld and Kubica again charged with the driving duties.