Formula One: Williams Close to Bmw Split

Frank Williams has finally lost patience with his formula one team's engine partner BMW and slammed the German car company for continually criticising his team.

In what is being interpreted by formula one insiders as the beginning of the end of the six-year Anglo-German partnership, Williams told Autosport magazine he was fed up with BMW's repeated implications that his team were the weak link in the partnership, which has yielded 10 grand prix wins since the start of 2001.

"Our partnerships in the past with Renault and Honda have been more successful and cooperative," said Williams. "You never had this constant finger-pointing. We do not constantly ask why BMW had some 150 engine failures in 2000 alone."

BMW is considering buying a stake in the Swiss-based Sauber team as the basis for a fully fledged team of its own. The competitions director Mario Theissen is understood to be keen to pursue this route, although the matter is complicated by the fact that the company's contract with Williams nominally extends to 2009.

BMW returned to formula one with Williams at the start of the 2000 season, confident that it was signing up with a team who would carry them to a world championship title in due course. Their best year together was 2001 when Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya won four races between them.

Williams are most likely to approach Honda for an engine-supply contract in the event of BMW ditching them for 2006. Williams used Honda engines from 1984-87, using them to power the team to the constructors' world championship in 1986-87.