Formula One news

BMW struggles for Fuji pace

The Formula 1 circus was excited by its first visit for 30 years to the picturesque landscape of the Japanese mountains and the race track at the foot of Mount Fuji. However, the first two practice sessions were less spectacular for the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers: Robert Kubica was sixth and tenth quickest while Nick Heidfeld was 13th and 15th. 

"It is quite a nice track," said Kubica. "I enjoy driving here though it is very tricky with a lot of blind corners, so you don't see the apex on four or five of them. There is also a lot of braking and acceleration. We have done some long runs this afternoon, and now we just have to fix a couple of set up issues and then we will be okay." 

Nick Heidfeld commented, "The track is a lot of fun and is much nicer, wider and more fluent than I thought it would be after I saw the sketches. It is very uphill and downhill and on several corners you can't see the apex, in particular this is because we are sitting so low in the cars. I didn't like the car's set-up at all in the first session as the rear was very nervous. It was better in the second, but we still didn't get the balance right. Because of a problem when shifting into seventh gear, I had to stop driving 15 minutes before the end of the session." 

Technical director Willy Rampf added, "It is challenging to come to a circuit which you only know from doing simulations. We have slightly amended the set-up that we started with. Today we were focussing on the race set- up. Our "dry runs" were successful: our best lap time and top speed where only approximately one percent away from our estimated figures."

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