Formula One news

BMW Sauber team unable to complete normal programme

The BMW Sauber F1 team had to deal with a technical problem at Nick Heidfeld's car on Thursday morning. The German had to park his engine halfway into the first free practice session and thus missed valuable time on track to prepare the car for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

Speaking about the team's progress made in Monaco BMW's technical director said: "We were not able to complete our normal programme. This was because there were some interruptions during the sessions. Beside that we had to change the engine on Nick's car after the first session. We repeated some of the things we did at our latest test in Paul Ricard, because the track characteristics here in Monaco are very special.

"Because of this we used the wheel covers at the front. Now we have more than a day to evaluate the data, before we concentrate on the qualifying set-up for Saturday."

Speaking about his problems in today's first free practice session Heidfeld commented: "In the first session I realized the engine was losing power, so then looked to find a good spot to stop. Of course the failure cost us running time and data, but we still managed to make several changes to the car for the second session. It was a general improvement. Taking into account it is Monaco, I would say my car is very driveable."

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