Busy day for BMW at Barcelona

The first practice day for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona was trouble free but very busy for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica tried a new front wing for the very first time, while they also completed the usual race preparation.

Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-07/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 4, 1.22.446 min
2nd Practice: 11, 1.22.710 min “We found different conditions to when we were testing here last week. The car’s balance is quite different, and we were struggling a bit with rear axle oversteer and it is snappy. We have to analyse everything and find the right balance for tomorrow. We just put the new front wing on this morning for the first time, and also checked it again in the last run of the second free practice. It is a bit better but we need to run it more.”

Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-05/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 12, 1.23,170 min
2nd Practice: 8, 1.22.543 min ”For me it was important to drive in both sessions today. We have been testing here, but I wasn’t able to compare the two tyre specs because the second of my two test days was very wet. Our preparation work looks good and also the new front wing seems to work alright. I think our position today doesn’t reflect how competitive we are. The new section of the track changes every lap because the tarmac is so new. That makes it a little bit more difficult for driving on now, but I’m happy with the circuit’s modification as it makes it safer.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director “We have only been focussing on race preparation today. Although we tested here last week, there is still a lot of set up work to do. We managed to complete our scheduled programme and also collected enough data for the tyre comparison. On top of that we were running a new front wing today, which we have not tested before. Of course we now have to look at the data, but the drivers’ response was positive.”