BMW not satisfied with Friday testing, problem with tyres?

By BMW Sauber F1
April 17 2009

As usual on a Friday, the BMW Sauber F1 Team used both free practice sessions for race preparation. For the first time the kinetic energy recovery system was not only used on Nick Heidfeld's car, but also on the F1.09 of Robert Kubica. Both 90 minute sessions went without any technical failures.

Robert Kubica:

BMW Sauber F1.09-05 / BMW P86/9 (KERS)
1. Training: 18th, 1:38.463 min / 2. Training: 17th, 1:37.491 min

"We completed our standard Friday programme and tried to learn more about the nature of the track and to understand the tyre compounds. While the option tyres are quite fragile, it is difficult to make the prime tyre work. Additionally, this was the first time I was running KERS at a Grand Prix weekend. There were a lot of tests to do. Now we have to check and evaluate the data."

Nick Heidfeld:

BMW Sauber F1.09-04 / BMW P86/9 (KERS)
1. Training: 16th, 1:38.456 min / 2. Training: 18th, 1:37.544 min

"As is normal for us on Fridays we focused on tyre evaluation for the race. They do not really work as we would like them to. We now have to try to improve the balance of the car."

Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): "Our concentration today, as usual, was on race preparation and, as expected, we completed the full programme. At the moment we are not satisfied with the results. For the first time both our drivers used the KERS. The positive side was we did not have any technical problems."