BMW Sauber F1 Team - Monaco Grand Prix - Free Practice

Weather: sunny and dry, 23-26°C Air, 32-42°C Track

Monaco. While BMW Sauber F1 Team driver Nick Heidfeld experienced a run of the mill start to the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, with the usual tyre evaluation and set-up work in free practice, his team-mate Robert Kubica missed the entire second session due to an engine failure.

Nick Heidfeld:
BMW Sauber F1.09-06 / BMW P86/9
1st Free Practice: 17th, 1:19.579 min / 2nd Free Practice: 17th, 1:17.109 min
“After brake problems on both cars in the morning, the second session was okay for me. On the long runs I was lucky in terms of traffic, but it was the opposite when I was on new tyres towards the end of the session. I lost time when I was stuck behind other cars, but even without this it doesn’t look as if this circuit is good for our cars. We will keep working on it.”
Robert Kubica:
BMW Sauber F1.09-03 / BMW P86/9
1st Free Practice: 16th, 1:19.560 min / 2nd Free Practice: no time
“Today was extremely disappointing. We clearly lack outright performance and, due to the engine failure in the second session, I had far too little track time. There is nothing to add.”

Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering):
“This was a disappointing practice day. The car’s performance is a long way behind what we were expecting. On top of that, due to technical problems, we lost valuable time for setting up the cars. Robert’s engine failure happened during the last planned running of this engine on a Friday. Therefore, the failure doesn’t impact on the number of engines we can use over the rest of the season. Of course the failure cost Robert valuable time when he should have been working on his car’s set-up.”