BMW's Turkey Quali Reactions: an improvement but not enough
By BMW Sauber F1
June 6 2009
Qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul saw an obviously improved performance from the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Tenth and 11th on the grid for Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld is not a reason to celebrate, but nevertheless motivating as it is a move in the right direction.
Robert Kubica: "Starting from P10 is definitely better than starting
from P18 the way I did in Monaco. However, we still lack a bit of pace
compared to the top cars. The track clearly suits our car better than
the Monaco track did. However, we really have to fight tomorrow.
Although the gap to the lead cars is quite close, there are a lot of
cars between us and the front row. It will be difficult."
Nick Heidfeld: "I have mixed feelings about today's qualifying. On one
hand it is annoying to miss the top ten qualifying by such a margin,
but on the other I'm happy to see the progress we've made. The car was
quick enough for Q3. I was seventh overall before my final outing in Q2
but then I was stuck in traffic on the last sector of my out lap. Given
how the 2009 tyres are, this is enough to prevent them from heating up
properly and consequently ruin your flying lap. Our new aero package
with the double diffuser is obviously a step forward. This is not only
compared to Monaco, but also to Barcelona where I scored two points
after starting 13th on the grid."
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "We produced a solid
performance in today's qualifying. Obviously, our goal was, to get both
cars into Q3, which didn't quite work out. Today, once again, the whole
field was very close. Nick missed Q3 by just five hundreds of a second,
and Robert was finally tenth. What this means in terms of the race we
will only see once we know the competitors' strategy. On the positive
side, in Q2, when all the drivers were running in the same conditions,
the gap to the front runners was only just 0.4 of a second. This proves
the new aero package has had a positive effect."
Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): "Today's result confirms we have
made a step in the right direction. However, if we want to fight for
the top positions we have to bring updates of the same magnitude to the
next races. Yesterday we were able to find a basic set-up for the new
aero package, which was also important for the ongoing development of
the car. For Robert and Nick it will not be easy to score points
tomorrow."
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HA, HA. No kidding. 10th and 11th is not what I would call solid performance. Was better than in Monaco, but still is not what we expected.
Quote:nasalkid
being 0.4 s off the leading pace is not that bad,better understanding of how to set up thecar with the new aero plus few minor tweaks here and there and we will be back in business. not bad at all!
0.4 sec is OK, but that doesn't make them to score the points.
Only 1st place that what's counts. Any thing less second best.
McLaren are back
ferrari just in front of BMW
But all of those teams are behind teams like brawn, red bull williams anfd toyota
adding that gap between teams are small (very), it makes this year very particular. All in all, it makes difficult any definite judgement
Let's do a quick comparison between Malaysian Q2, Bahrain Q2, Spanish Q2, Monaco Q2, and Turkish Q2 when all cars are in their most competitive form. I know these tracks differ in aerodynamic setups but still, we can draw some conclusions on how good the imrovements are.
I'm going to post only the fastest of Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, Brawn Mercedes, RBR Renault, and us.
Malaysian Q2 - gap
J. Button, Brawn Mercedes - 1:33.784
......
M. Webber, RBR Renault - 1:34.222 - 0.438
......
K. Raikkonen, Ferrari - 1:34.456 - 0.672
......
R. Kubica, BMW Sauber F1 - 1:34.562 - 0.778
......
L. Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes - 1:34.905 - 1.121
Bahrain Q2 - gap
S. Vettel, RBR Renault - 1:32.474
......
J. Button, Brawn Mercedes - 1:32.842 - 0.368
......
F. massa, Ferrari - 1:32.827 - 0.353
......
L. Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes - 1:32.877 - 0.403
......
R. Kubica, BMW Sauber F1 - 1:33.487 - 1.013
Spanish Q2 - gap ***U***
R. Barrichello, Brawn Mercedes - 1:19.954
......
M. Webber, RBR Renault - 1:20.007 - 0.054
......
F. Massa, Ferrari - 1:20.149 - 0.195
......
R. kubica, BMW Sauber F1 - 1:20.408 - 0.454
......
L. Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes - 1:20.805 - 0.851
Monaco Q2 - gap
K. Raikkonen, Ferrari - 1:14.514
......
H. Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes - 1:14.809 - 0.295
......
M. Webber, RBR Renault - 1:14.825 - 0.311
......
R. Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes - 1:14.829 - 0.315
......
R. Kubica, BMW Sauber F1 - disq.
Turkish Q2 - gap ***U***
S. Vettel, RBR Renault - 1:27.016
......
J. Button, Brawn Mercedes - 1:27.230 - 0.214
......
F. Massa, Ferrari - 1:27.349 - 0.333
......
R. Kubica, BMW Sauber F1 - 1:27.455 - 0.439
......
H. Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes - disq.
So you can see that whenever we introduce a major update, the gap reduces back to 0.4--, which is a fruitful result. But what draws my attention even further more is the gap between us and Ferrari. That means in our first major update, the gap between us and Ferrari was 0.259 whereas in our second major update, the gap between us and Ferrari reduced to 0.106. That is more or less a good indication that if we continue with our development/update pace like that, we're going to overleap Ferrari. And that is what we might be able to achieve at most this season in my opinion.
P.S. ***U*** denotes the introduction of a major update on our cars.
BMW Power
Istanbul track is longer than than Catalunya, so +0,4 in gao here is less behind than +0,4 gap there.
It's just that I expected we may bigger leaf towards front in comparison to our Barcelona pace.
Yeah, it looks great comparing to Bahrain or Monaco, but in those track we were some bad I would rather quickly discard them as any benchmarks.
Barcelona should be a benchmark, as this was the previous version of the car upgrade.
And on final note:
We are comparing single best Q2 laps. Nothing wrong with that. But let's remember the driving factor in it. A single little mistake or lack of it can easily swing the gap back or forth by 0,2 sec.
There were made great mistakes in design of the car, and some people have to kicked out of the team IMHO. Sorry it's Formula 1, if you're not good enough you're out!
BMW Power
Quote:popilirol a.k.a. rolren
I find it funny how some call it not enough. How much is enough relative to them? Did they expect to see our team jump from 9th team to 2nd? I find it ridiculous. In my eyes, jumping from 9th to 4th is more than enough.
From 9th? You mean Monaco? The hole in which have fallen? What kinf of comparison basis is that? By this way of logic Toyota made quite of a jump, as they went from 10th to 3rd. LOL
And you saw us in 4th in Turkey? That's seriously pink glasses you are looking through. Who exactly we were quicker than: Toyota? Ferrari? Williams?
I see you are set for joyful season: all we have to do is swing between 9th and 5th and you will be jumping with joy every second race...