Usual Friday for BMW Sauber
After the wet and cold Chinese Grand Prix the Formula 1 teams were practicing in dry desert heat with air temperatures up to 38 degree Celsius at the Bahrain International Circuit. Because its track lay-out favours the use of the kinetic energy recovery system both BMW Sauber F1.09 are fitted with it. Nick Heidfeld was second and last in the two 90 minute practice sessions on Friday, while Robert Kubica came third in the morning and 17th in the afternoon.
Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.09}-04 / BMW P86/9 (KERS)
1st Free Practice: 2nd, 1:33.907 min / 2nd Free Practice: 20th, 1:34.790 min
“Obviously we looked better in the morning session than we did in the afternoon. The difference in the balance with the softer Option tyres compared to the harder Prime tyres is quite big here, which makes it really difficult to set-up the car. I also had a lack of brake stability and the track didn’t have much grip, but this is rather normal on a Friday in Bahrain. We will now look into all the data and see what we will do tomorrow.”
Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.09}-05 / BMW P86/9 (KERS)
1st Free Practice: 3rd, 1:33.938 min / 2nd Free Practice: 17th, 1:34.605 min
“It was a usual Friday for us. We compared the tyre compounds and worked on the car balance. Additionally we worked on the KERS set-up, which is challenging as the temperatures here are quite high. We will now analyse the data and try to improve for tomorrow.”
Willy Rampf, Head of Engineering: ”We completed our Friday programme without any problems. As usual we concentrated on race preparation, the tyre comparisons and adapting to the KERS. The data will now we analysed. Last year the field was covered by 4.3 seconds, today it was only 1.4 seconds! So we can assume it will be a very close qualifying tomorrow.”
