One more point for BMW

The BMW Sauber team look back with mixed feeling to the French GP as the starting positions hampered the race of both drivers. Nick Heidfeld secured another World Championship point for the BMW Sauber F1 Team in the French Grand Prix, after moving up from 11th on the grid to eighth. Jacques Villeneuve started from 16th and finished 11th in the hot Magny Cours race.

My car was okay, I scored a point and more was not possible today. Unusually for me, my start was only average. I didn’t gain any positions, but I didn’t lose any either. On the first lap I overtook David Coulthard in the hairpin, and that was important as at the finish he was only a few seconds behind me. All in all my race was trouble free and I rarely got stuck in traffic, although I was wrongly shown blue flags for Pedro de la Rosa.

The beginning was exciting and I had to overtake Rubens Barrichello, but after that it was quite a boring race. The car was very good. When I came in for the pit stops the tyres were good and then for a few laps I needed to run them in, but by the end of the runs they were quick again. It was the right choice, we thought it was a big risk but, as we expected, once the track rubbered in it worked well. The only problem was my qualifying result.

It was a typical Magny Cours race with not a lot of overtaking and few incidents. In view of this our hopes of climbing from midfield to the front were limited. Despite this Nick scored a point from 11th on the grid and Jacques made up five positions. Taking into account the starting positions, this is an acceptable result. This track also demonstrated there is a significant gap to the top of the field. Before Hockenheim we will work hard on the development of the car.

As it is difficult to overtake here and considering our cars’ grid positions, the only sure way to improve our positions was during pit stops. The championship point was well earned. Being realistic about Jacques’ chances, there was no hope of him getting points from 16th on the grid, although his overtaking manoeuvre was very good. Both Jacques and Nick drove consistently in a race during which we had no technical problems. We are working hard to improve the car’s performance for Hockenheim.