Usual Friday for BMW despite lack of balance

Despite some drops of rain, the very last Friday sessions of the 2008 Formula One season went smoothly for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld completed their respective programmes in preparation for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 4th, 1:12.874 min / 2nd Practice: 12th, 1:12.971 min
“This was a usual Friday and we finished our scheduled programme. We did some basic set-up work and evaluated the different tyre compounds. At the end of both the sessions there was drizzle in some of the corners. However, the few drops did not really influence the grip. We shall now analyse the data we collected today.”

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
1st Practice: 9th, 1:13.426 min / 2nd Practice: 13th, 1:13.038 min
“After being really unhappy with the balance of the car in the first session, we improved it for the afternoon, but I still find the car difficult to drive. Because of the weather the programme was a little bit different to normal, but we have enough information to work on further improvements. The track isn’t as good as it was after it was freshly resurfaced last year, but it is still far better than it used to be! I would say it is on the same level as other Grand Prix circuits.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “It was a normal first practice day. Although the light rain started at exactly the moment we did the tyre comparison, despite this we collected enough data for us now to be able to analyse. We presume the weather could give us some surprises throughout the whole weekend.”