Horrible race for BMW Sauber in Bahrain

By BMW Sauber F1
April 26 2009

The 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix - that was won by Brawn GP's Jenson Button - proved to be another extremely difficult race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Due to their involvement in incidents, both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld had to pit in the opening stages of the race and consequently finished 18th and 19th respectively.

To have a chance of scoring some points despite having to start the race from 13th and 14th positions on the grid, both Robert and Nick contested the Bahrain Grand Prix on a one-stop strategy. In addition, they started the race - other than the majority of the field - on the mediums, the harder of the two tyre compounds available. Their hopes of benefiting from this strategy, however, came to an early and sudden end.

Both Robert and Nick gained positions right at the start but Robert was involved in a first-corner incident and therefore had to pit for a new front wing, at the end of lap one. One lap later, Nick's front wing was damaged in a similar incident and he also had to come in to have the nose of his BMW Sauber F1.09 replaced. Following these incidents, they continued in 18th and 19th respectively, behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa and ahead of Williams' Kazuki Nakajima who also had had to come in for unscheduled pit stops.

From this point in time, the race of the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers was virtually over. On their heavy loads of fuel and the harder tyre compounds, they had no chance at all of working their way back up. Far from it, the drivers in front of them even were able to open a gap on the pairing. And Nick, who apparently struggled with an extremely poor handling of his F1.09, following the incident, even was passed by Nakajima and dropped back to 20th.

On lap, 37, Robert came in for his only scheduled pit stop and one lap later, it was Nick's turn to come in. Now, both BMW Sauber F1.09s were shod with the super softs, but due to their once again heavy loads of fuel, they still hadn't any chance of making up for the lost ground. They continued 19th (Robert) and 20th (Nick) and only when Nakajima had to retire on lap 50, they both gained a position.

But that was that and at the end of the day, they were the last to cross the finish line and had to settle for coming 18th and 19th respectively. In the coming World Championship round, however, the Spanish GP held at Barcelona, the BMW Sauber F1.09 will be equipped with the eagerly awaited new aero package that is expected to represent a major step forward. Should this really be the case, the season kick-off of the European season also will represent the first step on the BMW Sauber F1 Team's way back to the front end of the grid.