Formula One news

BMW looking for performance

The BMW Sauber team continued to follow its usual pattern of concentrating on developing a suitable setup for race day, with relatively lowly times set on Friday in Shanghai. As Robert Kubica began to adapt to use of KERS, he and Nick Heidfeld took it in turns to lead the way with sixteenth being the best result between them.

"We completed our standard Friday programme and tried to learn more about the nature of the track, and to understand the tyre compounds," Kubica explained. "While the option tyres (Super Soft) are quite fragile, it is difficult to make the prime tyre (Medium) work. Also, this was the first time I was running KERS at a Grand Prix weekend, and there were a lot of tests to do; now we have to check and evaluate the data."

"Our concentration today, as usual, was on race preparation and, as expected, we completed the full programme," confirmed head of engineering Willy Rampf. "At the moment we are not satisfied with the results; for the first time both of our drivers used KERS - the positive side was that we did not have any technical problems."

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