Bernie Ecclestone backs BMW to return to F1 in the wake of Honda's comeback

BMW have denied they are planning to follow Honda's lead and return to the sport in the near future.

Honda's return has already been cited as the best news F1 has received in the last five years, and it remains to be seen whether other leading motorsport manufacturers will be sufficiently attracted by the change in regulations - featuring the introduction of 1.6-litre turbo-charged V6 'power units' to replace the existing 2.4-litre V8s - to commit millions of pounds of investment. Porsche, for one, have already made clear that they still do not regard F1 as adequately 'road relevant' to make the switch. "We are a sportscar company," Wolfgang Hatz, Porsche's head of R&D, told Autocar in March. "Porsche has always lived for the transfer of racing to production cars. For that reason it was clear two or three years ago we had to be back in high-level motorsport, and it was a choice between top-flight sportscars or Formula One. "The final decision was the only logical one. F1 was an alternative, but the road relevance is not there." Only time will tell if that ceases to be the case in 2014.