Heidfeld happier than Kubica at China

On what was a technically trouble free Friday with two 90 minutes sessions, both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers worked hard to improve the balance of their cars. However, there were mixed fortunes – on the first day of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend Nick Heidfeld seemed to be happier than Robert Kubica.

Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 5th, 1:36.507 min / 2nd Practice: 12th, 1:36.775 min
“As usual on Friday, we did the tyre evaluation and worked on the set-up of the car. We tried all kinds of different things, but I’m not happy yet with the balance of the car, and the overall level of grip is poor. We have to analyse the data carefully to make the right changes for tomorrow. There is still a lot of work to be done.”

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 7th, 1:37.040 min / 2nd Practice: 9th, 1:36.553 min
“In the second session especially I was quite happy with the long runs, as well as with the single laps. We have done quite a lot of set-up changes in the course of the day and during both sessions. Not every step was one in the right direction, but we understood and learned a lot.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: ”So far it is hard to make a judgement on the performance here in Shanghai. Up to now we haven’t found the perfect balance for both cars. With regard to the car’s set-up, it is difficult to find a good compromise between both tyre compounds. We did a complete race distance with both cars today and gained a lot of valuable data, which we shall now evaluate. We had no technical problems.”