6 F1 engine manufacturers who fell from grace

#4 BMW

German automotive giant BMW decided to develop its own turbo engine for the sport in 1980 based on the M10 unit - a four cylinder, 1.5 litre, normally aspirated engine that had originally been designed in the late 1950s. Its racing derivative the M12 had also found successes in Formula Two and other categories as well along the years.

Testing of the bonkers M12/13 got underway in late 1980 with a Brabham BT49 chassis modified to suit engine architecture when turbocharging was at its infancy. Brabham chief designer Gordon Murray its successor the BT50 exclusively with that turbo engine in mind featuring a longer wheelbase and a larger fuel cell. It was also one of the first Formula One cars to feature onboard telemetry to monitor fuel injection. The team's lead driver Nelson Piquet tested the BT50 throughout 1981 but the car proved unreliable until Bosch’s digital electronic management system was fitted at the end of the year.

The turbo engine was one of the most powerful with supposedly reaching figures of 1500bhp in qualifying trim. The Brabham and BMW partnership won a race in 1982 before achieving championship triumph the following year making the BMW M12 the first turbocharged engine to win the World Championship.

The following two seasons were miserable nonetheless with only three wins Piquet managed to muster due to unreliability and fuelling errors. The 4 cylinder engine had been pushed to its very limits with massive turbo boost pressures of around 50-60 psi leading to failures and high fuel consumption. The engine would go on to power teams such as Benetton, Arrows & Brabham until the end of 1988 when turbocharging was banned but the same block continued to be used in touring cars until the early 90s proving quite successful. During its time in F1, the engine had won the 1983 Drivers' Championship and nine Grands Prix. In addition, it also took 14 pole positions and set 13 fastest laps.

Returning after more than ten years absence in the beginning of new millennium with Williams, BMW designed the more aggressive P80 engine for 2001 that immediately propelled Ralf Schumacher and JuanPablo Montoya into contention for race victories. Its unreliable predecessor E41’s configuration of 3.0L V10 would form the basis for the following seasons. The BMW Williams F1 Team finished runner-up consecutively in 2002 and ’03 before winding down at the end of 2005.

BMW bought Hinwii-based Sauber team in June 2005 and formed the alliance that would last until the end of 2009. Polish driver Robert Kubicatook the team's only Grand Prix victory at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix before the German marque withdrew its operations and sold the stakes back to founder Peter Sauber.