We'll continue to develop aggressively - Theissen

Although Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were able to celebrate on the podium twice in 2006, race results are only one side of the story for Mario Theissen this season. More importantly, the BMW Motorsport Director is aiming to continue to push development hard during the course of the season.

During the last two testing programmes in Bahrain, in particular, the BMW Sauber F1 Team achieved its goals and was able to attract attention with competitive lap times. Nick Heidfeld finished a race and qualifying simulation as the fastest driver.

Theissen is satisfied with these results and believes the team is on a good path. "I am pleasantly surprised with our fast lap times," says Theissen. "The F1.07 was fast from the very beginning. The drivers are talking about a real step forward in terms of performance. This is the confirmation of our concept and development work."

Nevertheless, podium positions are not the be all and end all in the team's second year. According to Theissen, the most important aspect is to keep the development on an efficient and high level. The Germand comments: "We definitely do not have an agenda aiming to achieve special performances in the first race. On the contrary, we are concentrating on achieving a consistently high speed of development. This means that I expect us not to merely continuously improve our performances during the course of the season. We will continue to develop aggressively."