Speaking in a press briefing, Panke commented: "Neither us nor any other manufacturer is actively pursuing a stake in Formula One. Nobody has that as a priority or is actively pushing it."
The sport's car manufacturers have been eager to get a larger financial slice of Formula One's lucrative TV deals and it had been put forward that the purchase of Kirch's 58% stake may be a perfect vehicle for this. They had previously threatened to form a breakaway series in 2008 if they were not given more financial control of the sport.
Should a stake buyout be beyond the financial reach of the car manufacturers, the primary candidates for taking over Kirch's stake would appear to be F1 supremo Bernie Eccelstone or media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
BMW also announced today that it expects to beat the previous year's record profits in 2002. The car manufacturer stated that sales for its premium products were buoyant.
The chief executive of BMW, Helmut Panke, has stated that Formula One's car manufacturers are "not actively pursuing" the controlling stake in the sport which has been put up for sale by the financially troubled Kirch Group.
