Reliability issues disrupt BMW Sauber's day
On the final day of pre-season testing Kamui Kobayashi was again on duty for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. A gear box problem cost about two hours of track time before lunch. In the afternoon the team tried to catch up with the programme, but had to contend with an early stop to its running.
Nevertheless, Technical Director, Willy Rampf, has drawn a positive conclusion after a total of 16 test days.
Kamui Kobayashi: “We didn’t manage to achieve the expected mileage today because of technical issues. However, for me it was still a good day because we ran through several procedures for the first race weekend. As I said yesterday, these things are very important for me and I can see I’m improving. I feel ready for Bahrain.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “After the car ran smoothly during the earlier tests, unfortunately our final day of testing was hampered by reliability problems. In the morning it was a shifting problem, which needs to be analysed, and at the end it was a problem in the fuel system. Certainly both can be solved before Bahrain."
"In Barcelona we have been testing new aero parts," he continued, "which confirmed the performance we expected after the wind tunnel tests. We also concentrated further on getting the best out of the mechanical set-ups. We have defined the Bahrain package now and feel ready for the season to kick off. The team has four very busy weeks behind it and we are very much looking forward to finally going racing. We are happy with the overall performance of the car, considering the conditions under which the lap times were achieved.”
Weather: Dry track, partly overcast, air 15 - 18 °C, track 15 – 25 °C
Circuit length: 4.655 km
Driver: Kamui Kobayashi (JP)
Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber C29-01 / Ferrari
Kilometres: today 311.885 km (67 laps)
Fastest lap: 1:20.911 min
