The new BMW Sauber F1.07: Revolution or Evolution?

By Jaime
January 15 2007

Just one day before the BMW-Sauber's new F1.07 is presented at Valencia, at 9am. The presentation will take place at the 'Ciutat de les Arts y les Ciencies', a spectacular modern complex situated in the centre of the Mediterranean city of Valencia.

The event will be broadcasted live at the Team's official website, and will be discussed on the forum of our site.

The focus of the event will be on the new livery (there will probably be some changes, especially reducing the white in favour of the blue) and on the new car itself. So before the car is unveiled, we have been wondering and speculating on what changes it will have.

Will it be revolutionary and radical or evolutionary and conservative?

We consider the first option as more feasible, although not too radical. Here we give you the reasons why:

The first and more obvious is the high expectations of BMW and F1 insiders on this team. After a surprising 2006, where they were the 'dark horse', as they collected 2 podiums in their first season, 2007 is time for getting regular podiums and maybe a few victories. For this purpose BMW has been pushing hard in the recruitment process of staff and construction of new buildings and a supercomputer. So 2007 will be the first year when the effect of BMW's knowledge and budget will take full effect.

And we can anticipate that this will influence heavily on the new F1.07. First of all is the integration of the BMW engine in the chassis. As the FIA has banned the development of many of the parts of the engine, it will not have radical changes, hence simplifying the adaptation. Add to that the fact that while the F1.06 was almost a Sauber chassis with a BMW engine on the back, this year it will be the result of a closer collaboration and development of both factories.

A factor to also take into account is that most of the designers will be the same ones as the previous car, with Willy Rampf leading.

The rear or the car will be more compact but longer, similarly to the new Toyota's and Ferrari's. The reason is that engine engineers concentrated more on auxiliary and surrounding elements, making them tighter and more efficient. This size reduction on the engine cover and the rear in general benefits the aerodynamics, as it reduces drag and air disruption, hence turbulences that could affect the rear wing. But it will be longer due to the new gearbox, which for the first time for the Team, will be seamless (a type of gearbox that reduces considerably the time of gear change, giving a gain of about 2 or 3 tenths per lap).

The rear wing will be more curvy (both the flap section and the endplate, with the latter also becoming a bit bigger), but we don't know if this innovation will be introduced in the presentation or after the first major update.

Rear suspension will have modifications that will be focused on adapting the car to the harder Bridgestone tyres, and we believe that the car design will prime being softer on the front tyres than other teams, hence reducing tyre wear, by keeping more weight on the back and having a special suspension configuration.

On the front we guess that they will stick to the zero keel suspension and low nose configuration, but with different shape, probably more conventional one, something like Mclaren's MP4-20 (2005 car). The front wing will be a new one too, still supporting a much deeper centre, but we don't know if it will keep the special upper elements (those similar to Renault, Toyota and others), or if they will only use them on high down force circuits.

In the middle section, the sidepods will keep the 'sauberish' style, with highly sculpted shapes, but they will be smaller, especially the air intakes, as the refrigeration has been improved (even more if they have opted for the more compact V-configuration radiators instead of the conventional vertical ones, as they did in 2005).

The structure of the cockpit and the sidepods will be modified in order to make it more crash resistant, as the FIA has established more demanding crash tests.

Bear in mind that all of this is just our speculations, based on info we have analysed by comparing other teams, the BMW-Sauber F1.06, and staff comments, mixed with our own ideas.

We will see how much of this is true in a few hours!