Lighter car for China already says Rampf, Kubica not so sure

By The Offsider
April 16 2009

While Kubica seems to be more pessimistic ahead of the China GP, Willy Rampf is in a better mood, and expectes the F1.09 to improve already in the coming race. In fact there are some signs of it, as Kubica will evaluate, for first time, the KERS usage, during Friday's practice sessions at the Shangai track.

Kubica told to F1.pl: "The car is not lighter. I don't know if it will be (lighter) for Spain. We will have a new aerodynamic package and a couple of new solutions as most teams will have. I don't know anything about the weight of the car".

"We don't know when we will have a new diffuser. It's not that simple, it's not only about copying it from other car - especially if you don't know exactly how it looks like, pictures don't tell us much. Putting a new part on the car is not easy. It's not obvious that a part from other car will be useful in ours, it like putting a Ferrari's gearbox to Fiat Cinquecento. When it comes to a diffuser, it's aerodynamics that matter, these are very sensitive things and have to be worked on in details. Every wrong solution and even that which is not 100% certain, can bring more more damage than help".

"There is no guarantee that we will be much faster (with a new diffuser). Apart from that we are much further behind than is the advantage given by the diffuser. In Malaysia we were 1 second off the pace in qualifying. I don't know how it was in the race because I didn't have the opportunity to race. My pace in Australia was good thanks to SC period and good strategy. The true pace is different from the one I showed at the end of the race running on different tyres that others".

"The season is long but you score points from the very beginning. My start of the season is definitely far from the expectations. If we want to fight for our goals then we need to find new solutions in our car as soon as possible. It won't be easy for sure as the team have already spent a lot of time on developing the car. The car we are using now is the best solution we could have for that moment. In short period of time it won't be easy to find a second to the leaders".

Meanwhile Willy Rampf, Technical director, is being quoted by sport.pl as saying: "This process (making the car lighter) goes on. Thanks to that we are able to mount KERS in his (Robert's) car already in Shanghai and at the same time balance his car to make it perform good on this track."

Moreover Rampf said that the process of slimming the car started a while ago: "We simply replace the parts with a lighter ones". How much lighter the Pole's car will be in Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona? "Can't disclose the exact numbers. But one kilogramme wouldn't give us much. Let's say it's a question of a few kilogrammes" - says, smiling, the chief of BMW Sauber engineering.

Our analysis: as we all know, Robert normally tends to be rather skeptic or pessimistic regarding these kind of situations, so reading between the lines, together with Rampf words can make the BMW Sauber fans to be moderately optimistic for the future, especially once the F1 circus arrives to Europe, for the Spanish GP in Barcelona.

It will be a matter of who develops faster, as the other teams aren't standing still either, with Brawn already expected to bringa new aero packages, including re-sahped sidepods. We hear that they will have slightly smaller air inlets, as they don't need KERS refrigeration, while their initial package was designed for KERS using, and opting for asymaetical desing, a la Mclaren.

And we cannot forget about other teams such as Toyota and Williams, nor Red Bull -despite struggling to adapt double decker diffuser to their concept- or even Ferrari.

We shall see.