Different picture than Bahrain - Theissen

In his column, Mario Theissen looks back on the Malaysian Grand Prix. The BMW Motorsport Director is happy with the two World Championship points scored in Malaysia and reveals that the team will now focus on improving its reliability.

"Dear motor racing enthusiasts,

We are pleased with the first two points for the team, scored in the homeland of our premium partner, Petronas. Furthermore, our racing speed was really good, with the field, behind Renault, being very closely matched. It was enjoyable to see that we were among those teams. At the end of the day, it was completely different picture than in the season opener in Bahrain.

Altogether, however, we are disappointed. Nick drove an excellent race and was on the way to finishing fifth only to be forced into retirement by an engine failure. Nick's engine was the one that was used last week in Bahrain. It is now shipped to Munich for an extensive analysis. Just seven more laps, and his BMW P86 engine would have survived both races. We had hoped to strip the engine following two full race weekends to analyse the impact of these two hot races.

Now a word regarding the regulations: Obviously it's anything but ideal if the grid positions aren't clear at the end of the qualifying session. However, the situation shouldn't be dramatised. The new qualifying format is a true gain regarding action and excitement and has nothing to do with the regulation that engine changes are penalised with a ten-position grid penalty. This regulation has been in force since 2004, with the large number of engine changes being an anomaly, peculiar to this race. Nearly 50 percent of the manufacturers were forced to change their engines prior to the start. This proves that the development time for the new V8 engines was simply too short.

In the speed area, everything runs according to plan and now we are working flat out on reliability. Therefore, we should be able to deliver in Australia.

Yours sincerely,
Mario Theissen"