Engine disappoints JV

Despite his strong showing in Friday's practice sessions for the Australian GP, Jacques Villeneuve will have to face an uphill battle for the remainder of the weekend after it emerged that BMW would have to change his engine overnight.

Although there didn't appear to be anything wrong during either of Friday's two practice sessions, which Jacques finished in third and 12th places respectively, the team is concerned that his BMW engine won't last Sunday's entire 58 lap race. They have therefore decided to swap it for a new power unit.

Explaining the situation, BMW-Sauber team boss Mario Theissen said: "Our investigations into the breakages units after Bahrain and Malaysia revealed that some components have not met their required production tolerances.

"Our short-term reaction has been to build new engines with hand-selected components that best meet these rigorous requirements."

"We have two of these revised engines here. One is already installed in Nick’s car, and Jacques will get the second in time for qualifying after Saturday’s morning practice session.

"As a result he will lose 10 positions on the grid."

And that, Jacques Villeneuve admits, will make his performance in Saturday's qualifying session ever more important.

"The car seems to be competitive," he said.

"One issue so far has been warming up the tyres, which should not be a problem in qualifying now that we can run more than one lap, or in the race, but it will be critical to be competitive then because of the penalty I will get for needing an engine change.

"That’s a pity, because the balance of the car is very good, and I’m really happy with its speed."

http://www.f1technical.net/news/2391