The F1.09 performing more like a Mini than a BMW
By The Offsider
May 25 2009
Well, at least thats what some may think, especially with the team changing the usual 'BMW Power' sticker on the engine cover for the Mini 50th Anniversary. Some may argue a Mini would do better on the tight streets of Monaco, but certainly the MonacoGP wasn't exactly the best performance ever of the BMW Sauber F1 Team.
After the introduction of a new aerodynamic package in the previous race, at Barcelona, it seemed the team had raised it's game and closed partially the gap with front runners. Though, since the start of Monaco Free Practices it was clear it would be a nightmare weekend for BMW Sauber.
The lowest point was Qualifying, with neither of the drivers managing to get into Q2, finishing 16th and 17th. The race was slightly better, but mainly due to rivals' retirements.
Heidfeld at least managed 11th, even though later in the race he suffered some bad problems with graining on the super softs and a loose seat. On the other hand Kubica didn't even make it to the end, withthe brakes being the ones to blame this time, and earlier he had been forced to pit and become dead last due to a puncture follwoing a first lap incident with Lewis Hamilton.
Hopefully next weekend the performances will be back to BMW standards rather than Mini's (no offense to Mini owners, its in fact a great brand and nice little cars, but not even up to F1 levels off course!) with the introduction of some further aero improvements(?) and new, lighter and more compact, KERS version. In fact it will be finally the introduction of the famous double diffuser (though it is believed the team has evaluated a version with more than 2 levels) which will mostly likely bring a substantial gain. Around no less than 0,3seconds are expected from that alone.
Will Turkey become the start of the turn around?
At least we hope they don't bring again the jinxed Mini stickers!
Nick Heidfeld showing up with some Minis in Monaco 2009:
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Racing against the machine!
They do it all the time and nothing happens...How the hell did they analyse clutch problems in Kubica's car ? Same problem twice in a row and he loses chance to score points because of that. Fortunately in Monaco he overtook immediately Hamilton & Trulli, but then there were braking issues which were... guess what, analysed on Thursday!
I'm done with this analysing bullshit. Maybe they do analyse but they don't find solutions!