- Mario Theissen
Mario Theissen is the boss of BMW Motorsport - and the newest Formula 1 team principal. The German car manufacturer has announced its purchase of Sauber and the aim is to create a new manufacturer team in the sport. To take BMW to the World Championship. Theissen is a man with ambition but the one thing that is never lacking in the sport is ambition. The hard thing is to do the job and win. Buying Sauber makes a lot of sense to BMW but not to many others in F1 circles.
- Nicky Hayden
Nicholas "Nicky" Patrick Hayden, born in Owensboro, Kentucky, also known as The Kentucky Kid, is an American professional motorcycle racer and 2006 MotoGP World Champion.
- Chris Bangle
Christopher Edward Bangle (born on 14 October, 1956 in Ravenna, Ohio) is an American automobile designer. He is the Chief of Design for BMW Group, responsible for design strategy and conception across all BMW's brands including Mini and Rolls Royce. Bangle was raised in Wausau, Wisconsin, and attended the Wausau West High School. After considering becoming a Methodist minister, Bangle attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
- Willy Rampf
Willy Rampf (born June 20, 1953 in Maria Thalheim, Germany) is the technical director of the BMW Sauber Formula One team. Rampf studied Automotive Engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, and has worked as a development engineer for BMW since 1979. From 1989 to 1993, Rampf worked for BMW in South Africa, where he discovered Formula One. The Sauber team made its debut in Formula One at the South African Grand Prix in 1993.
- Helmut Panke
Helmut Panke was Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Munich, between 2002 and September 2006. Panke was Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Munich, between 2002 and September 2006. He has been with the company since 1982, when he joined as head of Planning and Controlling in the Research and Development Division. He has been with the company since 1982, when he joined as head of Planning and Controlling in the Research and Development Division.
- Hans-Joachim Stuck
Hans-Joachim "Striezel" Stuck is a German racing driver who has competed in Formula One and many other categories. He is the son of the legendary Hans Stuck. As a young boy, his father taught him driving on the Nürburgring, which led to the victory of the 19-year-old in the first 24 hours race there in 1970. He won there again in 1998 and 2004, too, each time with a BMW touring car.
- Jörg Müller
Jörg Müller is a German race driver, driving for BMW. His formally team-mate Dirk Müller is unrelated, as is French driver Yvan Muller. Jörg Müller is the son of formally European carting-champion Ewald Müller. In 1989 Müller won the titles in German Formula Opel Lotus and in European Formula Ford 1600.
- Bernd Pischetsrieder
Dr.-Ing. e.h Bernd Pischetsrieder is an automobile engineer and manager. He was born on February 15, 1948, in Munich, Germany and studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich from 1968 to 1972. He earned the degree of "Diplom-Ingenieur" and began his career at BMW in 1973 as a Production Planning Engineer. He was promoted to become chairman of the board of BMW from 1993 through 1999. He was also chairman of the Volkswagen AG from 2002 to 2006.
- Walter Röhrl
Walter Röhrl is a German rally and auto racing driver, with famous victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. At the age of 16, Röhrl began working for the Bishop of Regensburg, and soon became a driver who covered about 120,000 km annually as the bishop's driver. Being also active in sports like skiing, he was invited to drive his first rally in 1968. Röhrl was a World Rally Championship favorite during the 1970s and 1980s, …
- Fabrizio Giovanardi
Fabrizio Giovanardi (born December 14, 1966) is a racecar driver. He was born in Sassuolo near Modena in Italy. Fabrizio began his career karting before switching to Italian Formula 3. In season 1989 he switched to Formula 3000 to compete with First Racing and won the race in Vallelunga. A move to touring cars brought more luck, as he claimed the 1992 Italian championship.
- Ulrich Bez
Dr Ulrich Bez (b. November 1943 in Bad Cannstatt, Germany) is a German engineering manager. He holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Stuttgart. Throughout his career he was responsible for product design and development at Porsche, BMW and Daewoo Motor. While at Porsche, he led Vehicle Research and Development and motor sport programmes in Formula 1 and World Endurance Championship in Indianapolis and Le Mans.
- Marc Surer
Marc Surer (born September 18, 1951) is a former Formula One driver from Switzerland. He participated in 87 Grands Prix, debuting on September 9, 1979. He scored a total of 17 championship points. Surer enjoyed BMW backing for most of his career, placing second in the 1978 F2 championship and winning the 1979 series in a works March-BMW. Marc's early F1 years were somewhat troubled; he broke his legs testing an ATS at Kyalami in 1980, …
- Bill Auberlen
Bill Auberlen is a race car driver born in Redondo Beach, California, USA on 12 October 1968. He was the Grand-Am GT Series champion in 2002 and 2004. Auberlen currently drives a BMW Riley in the DP class for Sigalsport, a BMW M3 for Turner Motorsport in the Grand-Am GS class and a Panoz Esperante for the Prototype Technology Group PTG team in the American Le Mans Series. His career started in the 1970s in motocross, with Auberlen moving to IMSA GTU in 1987.
- Franz Tost
Franz Tost (born January 20, 1956 in Austria) is Team Principal of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team. As a young man, Tost competed in Formula Ford and Formula Three. He then studied Sport Science and Management, working as a team manager at the Walter Lechner Racing School. He joined Willi Weber Management in 1993. He initially ran the WTS Formula Three team, then looked after a young Ralf Schumacher's career in Japan.
- Mat Jackson
Mat Jackson is a racing driver from Henley-in-Arden, England, born 10th June 1981. For 2007 he and his family-ran team contest the British Touring Car Championship in the BMW used by Andy Priaulx to win the 2006 World Touring Car Championship. He started racing in karts in his teens, before finishing 4th in the 2000 Renault Clio Cup, his first attempt at tin-top racing.
- Jutta Kleinschmidt
Jutta Kleinschmidt (born August 29, 1962) is a competitor of offroad automotive racing events. She is known for her numerous remarkable participations in the Paris Dakar Rally, and also for having won the event in 2001 in a Mitsubishi, becoming the first woman to win the race. She was born in Cologne, Germany. She studied Physics at Isny Polytech then worked at BMW. She raced her first Dakar in 1988 on a BMW motorcycle.
- Tom Onslow-Cole
Tom Onslow-Cole is an English racing driver. Born 16th May 1987, he is the second-youngest BTCC factory driver ever, behind Tom Chilton from his 2003 season with Honda. 'The OC' won the Renault Clio Cup in 2006, aided by wins in races 1,3 and 5. He moves up to the BTCC for 2007, in a West Surrey Racing, Team RAC BMW alongside Colin Turkington. He took 2nd place in a chaotic race 5 at Rockingham, and then scored points in all three races at Thruxton (although this meeting, …
- Fredrik Ekblom
Fredrik Ekblom is a Swedish race car driver from Kumla. He made 13 Indy Lights starts in 1992 and 1993. He then made three starts in CART for three different teams and was entered in the 1994 and 1995 Indianapolis 500 races, but after passing rookie orientation in 1994, he never appeared for practice either year. In 1997 and 1998 he drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Courage Compétition and in 1999 for Nismo.
- Colin Turkington
Colin Henry Turkington is an auto racing driver from Portadown in Northern Ireland, born on March 21, 1982. He began his racing career in karting, moved on to the Ford Credit Fiesta Zetec Championship (which he won in 2001) and then onto the BTCC in 2002. His first BTCC drive was in a year-old MG sponsored by the pop group Atomic Kitten. He did well enough to move up to the manufacturer-backed team for 2003, …
- Herbert Quandt
Herbert Werner Quandt (June 22 1910- June 2 1982), was a German industrialist who saved BMW when it was at the point of bankruptcy and made another fortune in the process.
- Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16 1958), better known as Madonna, is an American dance-pop singer-songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. She is noted for her ambitious music videos and stage performances as well as using political, sexual, and religious themes in her work. In 2000, The Guinness World Records listed Madonna as the most successful female recording artist of all time, …
- Frank Stephenson
Frank Stephenson (b. October 1959) is an automobile designer. He was born in Morocco and went to high school in Madrid, Spain. Currently Alfa Romeo style chief, Stephenson is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Stephenson spent 11 years at BMW, where he worked on the BMW X5. He is best known for the design of the 2001 BMW MINI. He moved to Fiat in July 2002, working on the Maserati MC12 and Ferrari F430.
- Vanina Ickx
Vanina Ickx is a Belgian racecar driver. She is the daughter of Belgian Formula One driver Jacky Ickx. She started racing at a relatively late age, entering the BMW Compact Cup in 1996, a sub-division to the national touring car championship, Belgian Procar, partnering the Cup's most successful entrant, Stéphane De Groodt. For 1997 she got a Cup racer of her own, before she moved up to the major class in 1998, which runs to Super Production regulations.
- Sabine Schmitz
Sabine Schmitz, is a German former professional motor racing driver for BMW, now known for driving the BMW "Ring taxi" around the Nürburgring race track as well as being a television presenter.
- Hubert Auriol
Hubert Auriol (born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, June 7, 1952) is a former French racing driver and former director of the Paris-Dakar Rally. Auriol was the first racer to win the Dakar in both bikes and automobiles. Auriol began competing in motocross and enduro events in 1973. From 1979 to 1994, he took part in the Paris-Dakar Rally, taking part in the first nine events on a bike and the remaining seven on a car.
- Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen is an artist and kinetic sculptor living and working in Holland. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering. In a BMW television commercial, Jansen says "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." Jansen is dedicated to creating artificial life through the use of genetic algorithms.
- Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock <small>AM</small> (26 February, 1945 – 8 September, 2006) otherwise known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain" or simply as "Brocky" was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, although he raced vehicles of other manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Peugeot. He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, …
- Thed Björk
Thed Björk is a Swedish racing driver. After graduating from Karting in 1997 Björk raced in the Swedish and Nordic Formula 3 series, taking both titles in 1999. For 2000 he went to the United States to race in the Barber Dodge Pro Series. Björk took one pole position, lap record at Mid-Ohio and two fastest race laps. His best race finish was a fourth place and had he had one fifth and three sixth places. Björk finished 10th overall.
- Alessandro Nannini
Alessandro Nannini (born July 7, 1959) is a former Formula One driver from Italy. He is the younger brother of rock-singer Gianna Nannini.
- Manfred Winkelhock
Manfred Winkelhock was a German racing driver. Most people know Manfred Winkelhock as the man who flipped his F2 March at the Nürburgring in 1980. Winkelhock's first attempt at qualifying for a Formula One Grand Prix race was in Italy in 1980 when he stood in for the injured Jochen Mass at Arrows.
- Dieter Quester
Dieter Quester is a former Formula One and still active touring car racing driver from Austria. Dieter has participated in 53 24-Hour Races. Starting with motorboats in the 1950s, he became part of the Formula 2 team of BMW which intended to take part in the 1969 German Grand Prix. Teammate Gerhard Mitter was killed at the Nürburgring while practising with the "BMW 269", though. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, …
- Per-Gunnar Andersson
Per-Gunnar "Peggen" Andersson (born 15 August 1957) is a race car driver from Falkenberg, Sweden. He started his career in Sweden in 1980. In 1988 he won the Thai Touring Car Championship and the Swedish Touring Car Championship. He won the Swedish championship again in 1989, 1991 and 1992. In the 1980s Andersson also competed in DTM. In 1993 and 1995 he won the Nordic Touring Car Championship. Since then he has returned to Swedish touring cars, …
- Michael McDowell
Michael McDowell (born December 21, 1984 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an American racing driver. He won the 2004 Star Mazda championship, leading to a potential open-wheel career. He made two Champ Car starts for Rocketsports Racing at the end of 2005 but was not retained for the following season. He competed in Grand-Am Rolex Series for two seasons, co-piloting the No. 19 Daytona Prototype with Memo Gidley, …
- Stefan Bellof
Stefan Bellof (born in Gießen, Germany on November 20, 1957 – died in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium on September 1, 1985) was a Formula One driver who raced for the Tyrrell team.
- Ivan Capelli
Ivan Franco Capelli (born in Milan, May 24, 1963) is an Italian former Formula One driver. He participated in 98 Grands Prix, debuting on October 6, 1985. He achieved 3 podiums, and scored a total of 31 championship points. Today he is an F1 commentator on the Italian TV station Rai Uno.
- Nelson Angelo Piquet
Nelson Angelo Piquet (born July 25 1985, Heidelberg, Germany), also Nelson Piquet Junior or Nelsinho Piquet, is a Brazilian race car driver. He is the son of former Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, one of Brazil's all-time most successful F1 drivers. In the 2005 and 2006 seasons he raced in the GP2 Series, taking a win in Belgium in 2005 and claiming 2nd place in the series in 2006.
- Joachim Winkelhock
Joachim Winkelhock (born October 24, 1960), is a German motor racing driver. The younger brother of the late Manfred Winkelhock, Winkelhock was born in Waiblingen, near Stuttgart. The youngest brother Thomas Winkelhock as well as Manfred's son Markus Winkelhock are racers, too. After the death of his brother interrupted his career in 1985, he resumed later on, winning the 1988 German Formula Three championship as well as that year's European Cup, …
- Wolfgang Ziebart
Wolfgang Ziebart (born 30 January 1950 in Hannover) is chairman of the board of the Infineon Technologies AG. He started his career in 1977 after mechanical engineering studies, with the car manufacturer BMW. In the year 2000 Ziebart changed to the automobile supplier Continental AG. There he led the range of automotives of system with focus on automotive electronics and was among other things was responsible for the development of electronic brakes, …
- Giancarlo Minardi
Giancarlo Minardi (often spelt as Gian Carlo) (born 18 September, 1947) is the founder and former Managing Director of the Minardi Formula One team. Minardi was born in Faenza (Ravenna), Italy and has spent his life with cars. As a young boy, his family managed a Fiat dealership and an Agip fuel station, and currently manages Iveco and Selenia dealerships. His father, Giovanni Minardi, who died when Giancarlo was young, was also heavily involved in motor racing.
- Roberto Ravaglia
Italian Roberto Ravaglia (born May 26, 1957, in Venice, Italy) currently runs BMW's Team Italy-Spain in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), who took Alessandro Zanardi to a famous race victory at Oschersleben. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of most successful touring car racing driver, primarily for BMW, and won seven titles in three (four) championships. He was twice Italian karting champion, and raced in Formula 3 in the early 1980s.