Wednesday, May 14, 2008

BMW predict strong race in Monaco

BMW predict strong race in Monaco

BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen is confident his team will be strong at the Monaco Grand Prix after failing to fight near the top in Turkey.

"For Monaco I am really confident, the car should be okay there, the car should be strong," Theissen said.

"Montreal is a different game then but we have some developments for Montreal which I hope will improve and make our car very competitive there as well.

"I think the car should suit the (Monaco) track, or viceversa, and we should be in good shape there."

BMW were unable to run near rivals Ferrari or McLaren in Istanbul, with Robert Kubica finishing over 20 seconds behind race winner Felipe Massa in fourth place. Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was fifth.

Despite their performance, Theissen admitted he was pleased to leave Istanbul with nine points.

"Given the starting positions I am very satisfied with the result," he said. "Both drivers made up positions at the start. We expected Robert would not be able to hold Kimi behind himself, which happened.

"On the other hand Nick gained two positions at the first stop so four and five was really what we could achieve.

"For me this is a good result and an important result, and if you go home with nine points under less than perfect conditions that is fine."

The team endured their worst qualifying performance of the season in Turkey, with Kubica starting from fifth and Heidfeld down in ninth.

Theissen said they were unsure about the reasons for their lack of pace.

"I am not sure yet," he said.

"We just figured out in qualifying an unexpected tyre behaviour over the one hour of qualifying, and so although we focused on running with fuel in all practices, we were super fast without fuel in Q2 and with fuel it didn't work, and other drivers were struggling as well. This is something we have to analyse."

Despite the result in Turkey, BMW are still in second place in the standings, two points ahead of McLaren.



  • Bakkerud to miss Istanbul race
  • BMW hope for SC rules change by Monaco
  • McLaren bullish on chances for Monaco
  • Alonso expects no upsets at Monaco
  • BMW set to extend Kubica’s deal
  • Turkey Sunday quotes: Honda
  • Kovalainen philosophical after unlucky day
  • Q and A with Fernando Alonso
  • Ferrari will not use new nose in Turkey
  • Turkey Saturday quotes: McLaren
  • No comments: