Different side to Melbourne

In his regular column, BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen gives us some insights into the BMW Sauber F1 Team's preparations for the Australian Grand Prix. He is looking forward to the race 'Down under'.

"Dear motorsport enthusiasts,

We'll experience a different side to Melbourne this year. The Australian Grand Prix isn't the first round of the championship this season and the race has been put back a month into the Australian autumn. The city always gives Formula One an extremely enthusiastic welcome and I'm sure we'll all be won over by the atmosphere again in 2006.

As far as the demands on the engines are concerned, the nature of the Albert Park track and the expected weather should make for pretty benign conditions. After the blistering heat of Bahrain and Malaysia, it's unlikely we'll be faced with any extremes demanding special preparations for the engines this time.

The high number of engine changes made by the teams so far is evidence that the development time allowed for the new V8 powerplants was simply too short. We are now working all-out on reliability. As far as basic speed is concerned we're just about where we want to be, and during the weekend in Melbourne we'll be looking to build on the good race pace we showed in Malaysia.

The Australian GP is the last in the first batch of overseas races in 2006. After that comes the first extended break of the year, followed by the beginning of the European season at Imola on 23 April.

Yours sincerely,

Mario Theissen"