Not the best of weekends for BMW
The BMW Sauber F1 Team scored two points in an action packed Chinese Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld finished seventh after having been unlucky with the timing when changing from wets to dry weather tyres. Robert Kubica retired on lap 34 while leading due to an hydraulic leak.
Nick Heidfeld: 7th BMW Sauber F1.07-08/BMW P86/7 (T-car F1.07.04) Fastest Lap: 1.39.325 min on lap 55 (7th fastest overall) “I am very disappointed as fourth was possible for us today. In hindsight it was a mistake to take a second set of wets after 28 laps. At this time my first set was completely finished and I lost about 12 seconds a lap. On top of that it looked like we would have more rain. But after 32 laps I had to pit again for dry tyres. The race started well – I managed to gain two positions at the start, and it was almost three. On lap four I made a mistake under braking before the hairpin and Vitantonio Liuzzi passed me. Later in the race we met again, but I couldn’t overtake him. I was very close in the corners but couldn’t catch him on the straights.”
Robert Kubica: DNF BMW Sauber F1.07-03/BMW P86/7 Fastest Lap: 1.40.926 min on lap 32 (18th fastest overall) “I retired from the race with an hydraulic leak. That more or less says it all as I found myself with no power steering and no gears. It was looking pretty good up to then. We stayed out when it started raining with grooved tyres for three or four laps, which was very difficult, but it paid off. However, in the end it didn’t pay off because I couldn’t finish the race.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director: “It was an extremely hard weekend for our team. On Friday and on Saturday we had hydraulic problems three times. In contrast to European races, here we do not have the opportunity to analyse such a problem and to take the respective measures. Therefore, we knew before the race started there was a risk of a failure. Anyway, it is hard for Robert to roll to a stop while leading the race. Nick’s race went without any problems technically. A short rain shower forced us to do a second tyre change that finally dropped him down three places. We will take the defective parts to Munich in our hand luggage in order to start the analysis on Monday morning. Naturally, we were interested to see what happened in the title race. I am happy that the new world champion will be crowned at the season’s final race.”
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “This was a turbulent race under tough weather conditions. Both cars had a rain set-up, we had planned long stints. Nevertheless, the timing of Nick’s pit stop was not perfect. This cost him a few places. Robert was leading the race when he had his failure. This was a bitter pill. We will now do all possible to be perfectly prepared for the season finale in Brazil.”
