According to Theissen, BMW can still improve

Mario Theissen, BMW motorsport director, admitted that his F1 team still had some improvement points to start 2008 with the world championship title as the objective.

At 55, the German believes that BMW – 2nd in the 2007 championship for its second season in Formula 1, after McLaren’s classification withdrawal – must mainly focus its attention on the car’s aerodynamics.

« Notably during the second half of the season, we noticed that the more competitive cars had a significantly higher top speed while having much greater downforce… Therefore, we can still improve considerably in this area. We just need to find the key… » Admits Theissen.

However, for 2008, other factors need to be considered such as new regulations. Traction control will, for example, be banned, and according to the German, this measure will have much less impact on the single-seater than having last season engaged a single tire manufacturer, namely Bridgestone.

« We expect to soon have single-seaters without traction control, and therefore overall I think that this ban will have less influence than imposing a single tire manufacturer. »

Let’s recall that BMW was then equipped with Michelin, as were Renault and McLaren in particular, and therefore had to adapt to the new Bridgestone tires.