Bernie Ecclestone believes Honda’s planned return to Formula One in 2015 could lead to other major car manufacturers joining them.

The Formula One Group boss named BMW as another carmaker he expects to return to F1.

“I would be surprised if we don?������t see BMW again,” Ecclestone told City AM.

The mid-2000s saw several car manufacturers competing in Formula One with huge budgets but achieving little success.

However Ecclestone said “The amount of money [BMW] spent was not significant in the grand scheme of things.”

“It makes sense for them to return,” he added.

BMW left Formula One after a poor season in 2009. The previous year Robert Kubica scored the team’s only victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, and was in contention for the drivers’ championship until the penultimate round.

They were runners-up in the constructors’ championship in 2007 after McLaren were excluded from the standings.

Between 2000 and 2005 BMW supplied engines to Williams. They also competed in F1 in the 1980s, providing turbocharged engines to Ecclestone’s BMW team which powered Nelson Piquet to the 1983 drivers’ championship.

See pictures of BMW’s last F1 campaign here:

2013 F1 season

Image ?�?� BMW