Did BMW's meisterplan cost them a shot at the title?

Up until now, Dr. Theissen's masterplan for BMW had been working flawlessly - in 2006 they became a regular points contender, in 2007 they were regularly fighting for the podiums and this year they achieved their goal of first pole and win. In true Germanic ordnung must sein fashion BMW then shifted their focus to 2009, hoping to get a head start on the competition. Sounds reasonable, right? It sure does, until you consider what might have been had they devoted more resources to developing the 2008 car.

Hindsight is a tricky thing - it's always easy to look back and pass judgment on whether certain decisions were the right ones. Earlier this season, no one could have predicted that Ferrari and McMerc would only mount half-baked championship challenges plagued by poor reliability, driver mistakes and FIA interference. But that is exactly what happened and due to these circumstances Robert Kubica wound up just 12 points behind championship leader Hamilton with two rounds to go. This situation makes me wonder whether BMW did they right thing concentrating on 2009 after mid-season?

To be fair to BMW, they did continue to develop the F1.08 after that win in Canada, but their effort was somewhat half-hearted and did not give the team the boost they were looking for. Had Dr. Mario been more of a risk-taker, he should have devoted more of the research budget making the F1.08 quicker still. Instead, the BMW slid back into the clutches of first Toyota and Toro Rosso, and then Renault. What's more, I speculate that BMW could have even gotten more money from Munich just for 2008 had the good doctor made a convincing case to the board. I have no doubt in my mind that with a quicker car Kubica would have at the very least taken the fight to Massa and Lewis, and then who knows what would have happened?

The real answer, of course, is that we'll never know. All I hope for is that by sticking to ze meisterplan and focusing on the F1.09 BMW will be able to win the championships next year, or else they will be kicking themselves for throwing out a great opportunity this year. Looking in hindsight, of course :)

UPDATE: Dr. Mario came out just yesterday saying that the F1.09 is "on schedule", which bodes well for the meisterplan :)