BMW Sauber continued the thrilling rush of new cars hitting the headlines with the endlessly exciting launch of their F1.09 machine in Valencia today, the car that Robert Kubica hopes will help him challenge for this year's title, if not help them balance the books.
The BMW team will have looked to have gained an edge over their rivals by rolling out their interim car far earlier than the other teams, and the new machine looks not too dissimilar from that horrible design, with the front end seemingly taking design cues from a Formula BMW car, and the rear end all high, ugly wing and plain, featureless sidepods.
The launch came on the back of the loss of Credit Suisse as a sponsor for the team, and the powers that be didn't shy away from highlighting that this was the case, showing off the F1.09 next to last year's F1.08 with all of it's Credit Suisse and Dell stickers and larger Intel logos.
"Look at all the money we're losing! We're really really bloody screwed here!" BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen may as well have said to the press, but he didn't. In actual fact, he prattled on about KERS for a bit.
"At BMW we have always used the Formula One project as a technology laboratory for series production. With KERS this approach takes on a whole new dimension. Formula One will reposition itself and undergo a change of image, allowing the sport to take significant strides forward in terms of public acceptance." BMW was the first team to begin testing of the KERS unit last year,
Meanwhile, Robert Kubica was focused on the title. "For the first half of the season [in 2008], we were title contenders. We were leading the drivers' and Constructors' Championships at certain points of the season," he correctly recalled, "Everyone remembers how it finished, and we will try to repeat the first half of the season and finish better than last year."
Nick Heidfeld, who faces a make-or-break season with the team, was busy speculating on the new regulations. "I hope we will see more overtaking. I guess we will see more, but I think only a little bit," he rambled.
The F1.09 will start testing later on today.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
