Monaco Quali: BMW Sauber Reactions
By BMW Sauber F1 Team
May 24 2008
Robert Kubica qualified fifth for the Monaco Grand Prix. For his team mate a sequence came to a stop: for 28 consecutive races Nick Heidfeld had qualified in the top ten, but in Monaco he only came 13th. A red flag after an accident for David Coulthard robbed him of his last opportunity to get a top ten position.
Robert Kubica: "Again we showed we have a good pace. I was pushing on
every single lap of qualifying and this was all I could do today.
Unfortunately on my last flying lap I had Lewis Hamilton in front of
me. He did not hold me up, but whenever you have another car in front
of you there is some kind of a risk. On my out lap I tried to widen the
gap to Lewis so as to have no traffic. My tyres cooled down too much
and I was very slow in the first sector of my quick lap."
Nick Heidfeld: "Unfortunately I don't have much to say: my qualifying
result is disappointing. Here in Monaco I can't heat up the tyres
quickly enough."
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "From a technical point of
view our qualifying was ok. Certainly, we are disappointed with Nick
ending up 13th. Robert showed a good pace and was able to fight for the
top positions. In the end he even could have been a position further up
the grid, but fifth is ok."
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "In the third Free Practice we had
changing weather conditions. Therefore it was difficult to find the
perfect set-up. In Q1 and Q2 Robert managed to get the results we
expected. In Q3 he was not able to set the time we hoped for. In the
end he missed the second row of the grid by six thousands of a second.
Anyway, fifth is a good starting position. Meanwhile for Nick it will
be a lot more difficult to score points in Monaco from 13th on the
grid. However, for Sunday changing weather conditions are predicted, so
we might see a surprise."
"Technically we had no problem... blah blah blah... considering this and that blah blah blah we are happy blah blah blah " comments from Thiessen!
I am more and more reminded of last year. Are we reverting to last year status? Where we were so happy to be 5 or 6 and if one of the top four had problems we could take something more? I am certainly not satisfied by this.
You are reactinng a bit too much.
You had good views before, now you are getting a bit carried...
Remember Mario now (since he got the BMW Sauber role, and perhaps before) does more PR than tech comments. Its Rampf the one charge of the tech stuff.
Be sure they aren't satisfied neither if we end up 5th and 6th.
BUT the race has not even started. We don't know which set up they are using (if wet or semi-dry or dry).
And I'm not satisifed too. Nick in 13th is really bad. But I analyze the circunstances, and how the race will evolve.
WIth 90% chance of rain in the race, quali means little really. I believe in Nick's master drives in the wet
Racing against the machine!
I agree that on a predicted wet race qualifying might mean nothing but this does not chane the fact that we have been off pace up to this point.
OK I may be overreacting but it is something coming out of my heart, my BMW dedicated loyal heart!
one day we will be happy to.I told you to wait till the race, and look what raing brought, a 2nd place for Robert!
Racing against the machine!
Quote:J-Raid
I became very frustrated in the promised but not delivered Williams times (especially in 2004), but I'm realistic and I try to be cautious when analyzing why our team failed or succeed. Like what happened today.
I told you to wait till the race, and look what raing brought, a 2nd place for Robert!
Problem is Jaime, it was not the car that made 2nd place possible, but Robert's skill. BMW looks like not making progress like some other teams. Maybe they will have a bigger update soon, let's hope ...
But I do think the car contributed a lot for today's result, so did the team strategy. So you cannot just blame for all
It is true that the team needs to wake up and work even harder in the car development.
Lets see how the car goes in a completely different track as Canada's
Racing against the machine!
Quote:J-Raid
I became very frustrated in the promised but not delivered Williams times (especially in 2004), but I'm realistic and I try to be cautious when analyzing why our team failed or succeed. Like what happened today.
I told you to wait till the race, and look what raing brought, a 2nd place for Robert!
That is exactly what does not satisfy me any more Jaime, winning places and points on other's mistakes or on luck. Because that is what happened today we took advantage of Ferrari's mistakes and we had luck. OK, it takes some skill to take advantage of these situations but still we are behind.
Quote:J-Raid
Lets see how the car goes in a completely different track as Canada's
I am tired of being hopefull that the next race I will see something that will change my impression for the car. I really am.
Quote:J-Raid
But I do think the car contributed a lot for today's result, so did the team strategy. So you cannot just blame for all
First of all there is no blame on anybody, it's just normal life that some teams will make progress faster than others.
In what way the car contributed, I can't find. Robert's and Mario's words confirm that.
The strategy was also regular, and if I'm not mistaken it was Robert's call (according to his word when he saw Glock on dry tyres making faster times) to make the change faster (not corfirmed tho). but nothing special there either. He was supposed to stop faster than Massa, so when he pitted he went for dry, like all of others at the time.
I am not saying that Kubica was not contributing to the successes so far ( he has been brilliant ), but a driver can only do so much. ( See how Alonso is doing in a Renault ? ) Letīs be clear, we are talking about 3 tenths difference ( qualifying ) between the top 3 teams. Thatīs clearly very little gap. A few years ago it would have been 1st and 2nd.
Its because we were spoilt by the first 3 races ( podiums ), and I keep on reminding this to myself all the time, that we are so disappointed at the moment.
Quote:German Rocket
Letīs be clear, we are talking about 3 tenths difference ( qualifying ) between the top 3 teams.
If it is three tenths from the pole then you have chance to any position from P1 to P6 whilst if it is 3 tenths from P4 then your only hope is the lonely third team positions P5 and P6 . I don't think we are three tenths of second slower than the poleman.