Thats the BMW excuse because they didn't have any success during their last attempt. The economy is bad for other car brands as well and they are in F1.
Still hope they return though,
Ahh you mean like Honda and Toyota who actually left when the board told them too?
They all have motorsport departments wanting to be in F1 but they are not the ones running the company.
Renault cut down on their operations so now only works as a engine supplier,
Mercedes jumped in during the end of the worst part of the recession so they kinda dodged a bullet.
I bet if they had joined in 2006 they would not be in F1 today.
I garnatuee you if they have no sucess in these next 3 years they will also leave, it would be a waste of money.
Mclaren and Ferrari are different, most of their F1 spending is actually not from themselves but it´s from sponsors.
The other thing is that when manufacturers go into F1, big manufacturers like BMW and Toyota they go big or go home.
They build not just an F1 team but all the facilities, wind tunnels etc.
It´s an enormous cost to have when you are in a recession.
BMW built several facilities, built the (at the time) fastest super computer in Europe (Albert)
built a wind tunnel etc.
Same with Toyota, to make that tunnel even viable today they have Mclaren and Ferrari leasing the tunnel.
Economists run companies, not motorsport enthusiasts working in a small sector of that car company.
They are not motorsport interested they just want to save money for the company.