BMW: Sauber decision still a month away.

Mario Theissen has said that a decision on BMW's proposed link-up with Sauber won't be made for at least a month, despite a board meeting due early next week to discuss the company's future in F1.

It remains to be seen whether Sauber becomes a full works BMW effort, or for how long the current Williams arrangement will continue.

"We are in discussions," Theissen admitted, "But I wouldn't say that it will be decided this week. We'll certainly not have a decision in the coming weeks. We are discussing the situation and I would expect us to do that within June, and probably to have a decision on what to do at the end of June."

Theissen denied that the Monaco podiums and Nurburgring pole had complicated the decision by showing an improvement in the Williams package.

"We really appreciate what we achieved as a team in the last race and today," he said, "In some ways, it was expected, and I personally hope that we can continue to close the gap to the frontrunners and win races this year. That's what we expect anyway. But there is no link [between the Sauber decision and] the current performance of our team. I expect the relationship to continue beyond this season.

"At the beginning of this year, we said we were prepared to supply a second team from 2006 onwards. Soon after that, we entered into discussions with Sauber, and originally with Red Bull as well. The discussions are progressing, but we don't have a decision yet."

Theissen also added that there is no definite date for the track debut of the new V8, despite some of BMW's rivals having already debuted interim versions of their engine.

"Sometime in summer, but we haven't fixed a date yet," the German suggested, "I can say we are certainly not the earliest with the programme. We started probably the latest to develop the V8 engine, but the programme is well on schedule."

Despite the delay, Theissen was able to confirm that, should the deal with the Swiss team go ahead, Sauber and Williams would have the same engine supply.

"We don't intend to develop two different engines," he insisted.