BMW Sauber withdrawal from Formula One brings the curtain down on an eventful four-year spell in the top tier of motor racing.

The team, who gave former world champion Jacques Villeneuve his last drive in the sport and in Robert Kubica fielded its first ever Polish driver, have emerged over the past two years as the closest challengers to McLaren and Ferrari.

But if that duo have struggled to adjust to the changes of the sport this year, their woes have paled into insignificance in comparison to the misery of BMW Sauber's season.

BMW had previously been involved in the 1980s with the Brabham team and with Williams, while Sauber had scored six podium finishes between 1993 and 2005.

The Bavarian manufacturer announced their takeover of a majority stake in Sauber in June 2005 and the new BMW Sauber F1 team lined up for their first Grand Prix in Bahrain in March 2006, with Nick Heidfeld and 1997 champion Villeneuve as their two drivers.

The team's first points followed in the very next race as Villeneuve took seventh place in Malaysia.

Villeneuve would last barely five more months, though, as Kubica took his place in Hungary in August, spelling the end of the Canadian's F1 career.

Hungary also saw Heidfeld claim the team's first podium finish as he came in third.

Kubica was not to be outdone and secured third place the following month at the Italian GP, his third race.

BMW Sauber ended their maiden season in fifth place in the constructors' championship and in 2007 finished second, aided by McLaren's exclusion in the wake of the 'spy saga', amassing 101 points.

Progression continued into 2008 as Kubica secured the team's first ever pole position in April, aptly at the scene of the team's first ever race in Bahrain.

The Pole claimed their first ever GP win in Canada in June and went on to finish fourth in the drivers' championship, with Heidfeld just two places further back.

The team ended third in the constructors' championship with 135 points, behind only Ferrari and McLaren.

But this year has been a tale of disappointment, After eight points from the opening 10 GPs of the season, BMW Sauber have decided to call it a day, a sorry way to end after such a promising start.