Assessment – Friday – No Extravagance for BMW-Sauber

Under a blazing sun, the two BMW-Sauber drivers recorded lap times that wouldn’t draw crowds. But the essential was done; Kubica is in the top 10 in both practice sessions, while Heidfeld finishes tonight in 13th place.

The Polish driver had a small mechanical issue in the morning and covered only a few kilometers for a total of 9 laps. The team is also preparing for the arrival of rain!

Robert Kubica – 8th and 8th:

« After losing quite a bit of time in the morning due to a gearbox problem, we primarily focused on tire evaluation in the afternoon. »

« We now have a lot of data that we need to analyze and understand in order to make the right decisions for the rest of the weekend. We haven’t had much time to work on the car’s setup yet, which is what we will focus on in the coming hours. »

Nick Heidfeld – 11th and 13th:

« I am very happy with this Friday’s tests. The car behaves better here than it did on Friday in Melbourne. I hope we will manage to find the best setup for Saturday to achieve real improvements as we did in Australia. »

« Even though the track has been redone, it took a few laps this morning to regain a bit more grip. A big question mark remains with the weather. Maybe rain, I have nothing against it but it will make the situation more complex. The problem here is these tropical showers that come very quickly and within seconds, you really can’t see anything and aquaplaning is common. »

Willy Rampf – Technical Director:

« Today we focused on race preparation by collecting a lot of data concerning the tires. We also tested different aerodynamic configurations. Now we are going to analyze this data. Robert reported a tire pressure issue on his car. »

There was a risk of damaging the cooling system, so we decided to change the rear to allow Robert to continue the session. Hats off to the mechanics who did a great job. The conditions were dry today but we’re definitely expecting rain for the rest of the weekend.