BMW-Sauber will have to wait until the end of the 2010 Formula One season to change their name, a spokesman for the Swiss-based team said on Thursday.
The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA)'s Formula One commission had agreed at a meeting this week that they could change their name at the end of the championship, the spokesman added.
Unless there is a change of ownership, the new name is likely to return to being just Sauber -- their identity before being taken over by BMW in 2005.
German manufacturer BMW, who formerly owned the team, quit Formula One at the end of last year and Sauber are now powered by Ferrari engines despite entering the championship under their previous name.
The team, with Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa and Japan's Kamui Kobayashi, have scored just one point from eight races ahead of Sunday's European Grand Prix in Valencia.