11/09/2009
NEWS STORY
The BMW Sauber F1 Team enjoyed a reasonable start to the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Both drivers made good progress during the two 90 minute practice sessions on Friday.
The F1.09 has a modified front wing and a special rear wing to lower the drag for the high speed Monza circuit.
Robert Kubica: "We lost quite a lot of time in the morning session due to a problem with the brakes. Fortunately we were able to change the brakes in time and I completed a baseline run at the end of the session. In the afternoon we worked on the set-up of the car and tried to evaluate the tyres."
Nick Heidfeld: "The lap times are not bad, especially when you take into account I did my fastest lap in the second session quite early on and even had some traffic. The car's balance is better than it has been on some other Fridays, but there is still room for improvement. It is challenging to get the balance right for both qualifying and the race. We did the usual tyre evaluation and compared the softer and the harder compounds on long runs. The height of the new kerbs changes the circuit quite a lot, you have to get used to it and look where you can still go over them and which ones you better avoid. At the end of the second session I pitted a few minutes early after I went straight on at the Ascari chicane and wanted to have the car checked."
Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): "Monza is the only track where we run the low downforce package, therefore we invested quite some time in the morning to find a baseline for the set-up of the car. On the one hand it's crucial here not to lose too much time riding the kerbs, while on the other hand braking stability is even more important here than on other tracks. In the afternoon we concentrated fully on race preparation and on the tyre comparisons. We are quite happy with the results on low fuel, however, with higher fuel loads we still have some work to do."