BMW Sauber proved 4th best , is that good for us?

By Jaime M.
June 18 2006

Mario Theissen said after UK:'For the first time in the last GP, our team emerged as the fourth force to be reckoned with' But is that so good? Find it here:

BMW Sauber lie 5th in the championship at the moment, having scored 17 points to date - 12 less than Honda, who are fourth and 7 more than Williams, who stand 6th.

In Silverstone proved to be the 'best of the rest', after the migthy Renault, Ferrari and Mclaren. It was a consistent race for the team, and specially notorious taking into account that there were no retirements in front of BMW drivers, so the result came due to race pace, not luck.

But will this happen in the rest of the season? Im not so sure.

First think that Silverstone is a fast track, as Montreal and Indy are, and this kind of circuits seem to suit the Team, probably due to a powerful engine and the 'state of art' wind tunnel at Hinwil (which is believed to be the most advanced of the field).

But there will be many other tracks that are not so fast such as Hungaroring, or even the race after America's rounds, Magny Cours. And this kind of circuits doesnt suit the F1.06 as much (remember Monaco or Imola).

Also notice that Honda are still strong, and even though they failed in the last race, we cannot forget that in general they are still faster, and they will probably react soon.

Another important point for BMW to look just for 5th place is that they should NOT forget about Williams and Toyota, who although struggled in the season, have shown some good performances only damaged by reliability or race incidents, and are not far behind.

And what's also an important factor is next season: the Team is growing, but its still not as big as others yet, and for next year the objective should be catching some races victories (hope so...). For that achivement every help is necesary, and one in special: 3rd driver on GP Fridays.

That role will probably be done next year by polish driver Robert Kubica (but lot of rumours still about his future and no comfirmation yet), who by now has perfomed greatly collecting lot of data and performing some stunning pace in the practice sessions. So all the data that an extra driver can get is essential, but the thing is that the 4 best teams of the previous season can NOT get that advanatage, thats my point.

So we have to be realistical, the Team must concentrate to collect points and matain the 5th place in the Championship, which is still great for an almost 'newly created' team.

By the way lets hope Jacques does well at his home race, and Nick also performs greatly