By BMW Sauber F1
May 23 2009

The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica ended up disappointed after finishing 17th and 18th in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld: "Obviously this is extremely disappointing. We made a lot of changes after Thursday's free practice and even more changes after this morning's session, although this is always a bit risky shortly before qualifying. But we knew we hadn't much to lose. Actually it was rather a change for the worse than for the better, but it didn't really make a big difference anyway. It is frustrating when you go to the absolute limit and take every risk, especially here on this special circuit, and you still end up nowhere. Currently we don't know what's wrong. In Barcelona we made a step forward, but here we are way behind expectations."

Robert Kubica: "So far we have only had difficulties. We struggled on Thursday and again this morning. I had a very bad out lap with a lot of traffic. As a result my tyres cooled down a lot. However, the overall performance of the car is not good enough. We have to realise we are bad. We have to adapt to the situation and we have to work very hard now."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "The qualifying result reflects the problems we already faced in free practice here in Monaco. No matter which set-up or on what tyre compound - none of our cars were able to achieve the necessary grip. Our data shows the tyres never reached their operating temperatures. Positions 17 and 18 are disappointing. We have a lot of work ahead of us."

Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): "Monaco is a special track for which you do special preparation work. But, despite several set-up changes, we never found an acceptable grip level and car balance. So far this has been a poor performance from us. The drivers tried everything and didn't make mistakes, but our cars were simply too slow. Now we have to start to figure out the reason and begin to solve the problems before Istanbul."

BMW Quali Reactions: "We don't know what's wrong"

Discussion started by BMW Sauber F1 (IP Logged), 23/05/2009 15:58

BMW Sauber F1
23/05/2009 15:58

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Raid Phoenix
23/05/2009 16:22

We don't know why...

We aren't making the tyres work, very nice to hear that.

Obviouly after Barcelona Championship is over, but I fear too that unless the Turkey package is a big big step forward, we may not even get a single win this season...pufff, I'm getting depressed.

Walsingham, at what part of the (psycologic) process am I? lol

Racing against the machine!

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barteks
23/05/2009 16:24

A single win? I will be happy if Kubica scores a single point this season

2008 Prediction Champion

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Raid Phoenix
23/05/2009 16:38

I post here a link too to Kubica's critic words, as they are some sort of quali reactions too: LINK RK "wake up" call to the team

Barteks, don't be that pessimistic. Sooner or later he will manage to get at least one

Racing against the machine!

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soarq
23/05/2009 17:19

I knew already in Australia wins are out of question we were 1-1.2s slower than 2-3 other teams.

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