No surprises for well-prepared BMW
Both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers had a trouble free first day on the new street circuit round the harbour area of Valencia, which received compliments from every direction. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld completed their evaluation of the harder and softer tyre compounds as planned, and both of them see room for improvement before the start of the European Grand Prix.
Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 6th, 1:41.281 min / 2nd Practice: 8th, 1:40.149 min
“In the First Free Practice session we concentrated on learning the new circuit. The surface was still very dirty in the morning, so we had to wait until the track picked up some grip. In the Second Free Practice the conditions were better, although it was still quite slippery, and our main focus was on tyre evaluation and basic set-up work. Anyway, the track conditions were changing every thirty minutes. Because of this it is quite tricky to make a prediction for tomorrow. We now have to analyse the data.”
Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 16th, 1:42.453 min / 2nd Practice: 18th, 1:41.084 min
“I really like the new Valencia street circuit as they have done a very good job on the lay-out. Of course at the start the track was extremely dirty, but obviously the conditions are the same for everybody. We had no technical problems and I was able to do the tyre comparison as planned. I’m not happy with the lap times yet, so now we shall look into the data and figure out how we can improve.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “Although this is a new track, there were no surprises for us as regards the car’s set-up. The circuit is as we expected, and we were well prepared. As usual on Friday we concentrated on comparing the tyres and race preparation. We were able to complete the programme without any technical problems. Because we cannot use any previous information to refer to for this new track, we shall now analyse all the data. We shall pay special attention to comparing the sector times so we can make the right set-up changes for the rest of the weekend.”
