Motor Sport: The new BMW-Sauber Formula One team unveiled their first car this morning with the aim of winning races within three years.
Even if podium finishes remained a step too far this season, BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said the longer-term target remained unchanged.
"We start from eighth place in the constructors' championship, any improvement is satisfying and we have to make as big a step as we can," said Theissen, who will take on the role of team principal. "I don't promise you podium finishes for this year or even victories but we will make our mark and put everything in place to close the gap to the top teams and get there."
BMW, formerly partners to Williams, announced last year that they were buying Swiss-based Sauber and took majority control at the start of January.
Sauber never won a race in their 13 years in the sport but Theissen said in 2005 that the BMW team would hope to have done that by the end of their third season.
"I think it could be possible but in the end it's a sport," Theissen said after the gleaming white and blue F1.06 car was unveiled in Valencia's futuristic City of Arts and Sciences.
"The target is to move up the ladder as quickly as possible and we are very confident that we have put everything in place, the resources are there," he added. "But it takes time, it won't happen overnight."
Canada's former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Germany's Nick Heidfeld are the two race drivers for 2006 with Polish newcomer Robert Kubica the tester.
Villeneuve had a troubled last season at Sauber, with regular speculation that he would be dropped, and this season could still be his last in Formula One.
"It will be better than last year," the 1997 champion predicted when asked how he saw the season unfolding. "But it is impossible to know exactly where we stand right now."