Gearbox change in both sessions for Heidfeld

The BMW Sauber F1 Team had a disappointing Friday at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend. Robert Kubica was sixth and 14th and was unhappy with the set-up of his car. Nick Heidfeld, who was tenth and 15th, only did 29 laps in the two 90 minute sessions on the Shanghai International Circuit. In his F1.07 the gearbox had to be changed twice.

Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.07-03/BMW P86/7 1st Practice: 6th, 1.38.055 min
2nd Practice: 14th, 1.38.379 min “My day was slightly better than Nick’s as I had fewer problems. However, we have to work very hard on the set up and the balance of the car as we are a bit disappointed about how the car behaves. At least in the second session I had a good top speed, which we were missing in the first practice.”

Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.07-08/BMW P86/7 (T-car F1.07.04) 1st Practice: 10th, 1.38.445 min
2nd Practice: 15th, 1.38.388 min “Of course I’m disappointed because I was not able to do a lot of driving today. In both the sessions I had an hydraulic leak which meant a gearbox change. The mechanics did a great job, but the track conditions were also changing and, therefore, making any sensible comparisons impossible.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director “Today we concentrated on the race set-up. But we had to do our programme with only one car because Nick’s gearbox had to be changed twice due to hydraulic problems. Because of this the mechanics had a lot of work to do, and in both sessions they had a race against the clock to get the car out again. Now we have to check the data and to get the best set-up possible because we have not been able to achieve this yet.”