BMW to Keep Same Development Approach for 2009

One of the teams that have made a clear progress inside the Great Circle during the past year is certainly BMW Sauber. The German manufacturer managed to keep themselves in the title race in both constructors' and drivers' classification (through Robert Kubica) with 2 races to go in the season. Nevertheless, the overall impression was that, had they paid more attention to the development programme for 2008, BMW should have been higher in the standings before the season finale at Interlagos.

Nevertheless, the team's motorsport director Mario Theissen insisted that his team has done everything right in 2008, while developing both the current and the 2009 car in parallel. It was only unfortunate that the team failed to keep the pace with their rivals on top of the standings in the second part of the season.

“We ran both programmes in parallel and the key issue is that some projects which showed an advantage in simulation as well as the wind tunnel did not prove to be an advantage on the track. That is what we have to analyze,” argued Theissen earlier today.

However, Pole Robert Kubica admitted shortly after the Japanese Grand Prix – although he didn't quite spell it out to the media – that his team was more focused on next year's car and that he would have had a greater shot at winning the title had his team provided him with a more competitive car like in the first half of the season.

When talking about next season, Theissen insisted that BMW will keep the same approach as in 2008 and will bring new updates to their car weekend after weekend to ensure a steeper performance curve throughout the year.

“We will do that in the same way we did it earlier this year, when the initial performance of the car was not satisfying. I am sure we will get on top of it in order to have a steeper development curve again. Last year was good in terms of in-season development, so there is no reason why we should not be strong again,” argued Theissen.

BMW already seem ahead of their rivals with the development of their F1.09. Test driver Christian Klien admitted earlier this week that his team has already reached a high stage in developing their KERS unit and will certainly be one of the teams to use the new technology from next season's very first race.