Saturday saw BMW and a gathering of 600 guests in the Austrian town of Seefeld celebrating the successful season for Formula One and the European Touring Car Championship.

Attending the party were the Formula One drivers of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team, Juan Pablo Montoya with wife Connie and Ralf and Cora Schumacher, along with test driver Marc Gené, and the BMW works drivers from the European Touring Car Championship, Dirk and Jörg Müller.

Also joining in the celebrations were another two dozen racing drivers who had claimed motor racing successes around the world for BMW in 2003. In the evening, the most successful of the independent drivers were honoured at the traditional award ceremony of the BMW Sports Trophy, worth a total of 241,000 euros.

Fun and games preceded the festivities: the 1,800-square-metre open-air ice stadium at the Olympia Sport and Congress Centre in Seefeld was the venue for curling and ice hockey competitions in the afternoon, with the three F1 drivers forming one team and the two Müllers plus BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen making up the other. Tackling the ice on BMW mountain bikes, even with spike tyres, and in a Formula BMW race car also demanded considerable skill.

The drivers' motivation to break the dominance of the colour red was evident even when they dressed up as Santa Claus: donning blue and white coats, they handed out sweets to delighted spectators.

Enjoying the Christmas market in the medieval ambience of the BMW Motorsport Castle and the party that followed were, among others, BMW Board Member Professor Burkhard Göschel, WilliamsF1 bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head, outgoing BMW Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger, ex-Formula One world champion Keke Rosberg, Leopold Prince of Bavaria, Alessandro Zanardi, TV celebrity Wolfgang Fierek and TV presenter Barbara Schöneberger, who hosted the varied entertainment programme with occasional assistance from Hans-Joachim Stuck.