Full speed ahead with development - Rampf

Four races into the season, the BMW Sauber F1 Team is currently second in the Constructors' Championship. According to Willy Rampf, the team from Munich and Hinwil is aiming to maintain its position in Turkey.

"The race in Barcelona showed that the order at the top has not changed," says Willy Rampf, the Technical Director of the BMW Sauber F1 Team. "Ferrari still has the advantage, while McLaren Mercedes and the BMW Sauber F1 Team are practically on a par."

Rampf believes the line-up at the top promises to be very exciting in Turkey: "It's so close that the slightest modification could swing the pendulum either way. That's why we are pushing our development forward at full speed."

The BMW Sauber F1 Team has gathered loads of data at the Istanbul track in the previous two years. Rampf knows all about the key points of the circuit and says: "Drivers race in an anti-clockwise direction at the Istanbul Park, which provides plenty of variety. It has slow sections where good traction is called for, but then there's also the spectacular turn 8, which comprises four sections that are taken in one go at around 250km/h".

Rampf adds: "Because of the long, often uphill straights, the car's aerodynamic drag must be kept within limits. That's why for Istanbul we select a downforce setting a notch lower than in Barcelona."