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  • BMW continues 2008 WTCC campaign on difficult territory.
    Created: Sunday, March 30, 2008 Author: Jeff
    This weekend the BMW national teams will contest rounds three and four of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in Puebla (MX). At the season opener in Brazil four weeks ago, the quintet of drivers amassed a total of 36 points with their BMW 320si WTCC cars. The goal of the drivers is to increase their tallies at the “Autódromo Miguel E. Abed”. However, it’s not an easy mission that will greet them in Mexico. On the one hand, Puebla is located about 2,200 metres above sea level. This causes a loss of engine power which must not be underestimated. This loss, however, is considerably less for competitors running diesel engines due to the different configuration of the engine. On the other hand, four of the five BMW national drivers will carry “success weight” for the first time this year. Andy Priaulx (GB) of BMW Team UK, who is ranked third in the Drivers’ Championship, carries 33 kilograms of ballast, while BMW Team Germany’s Jörg...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Bahrain GP - Preview
    Created: Thursday, March 27, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Munich/Hinwil, 28th March 2008. Two races, two consecutive second places, a tally of 19 points, second in the constructors’ championship – the BMW Sauber F1 Team has made a textbook start to the 2008 season. The plan is to continue this positive trend at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld: “I really like the track layout and the whole complex in Bahrain. Everything there is very modern and spacious. For me one of the best sections of the entire season is the stretch between turn 5 and the penultimate turn at the Bahrain International Circuit. The climate tends to be pleasant there, although being in the middle of the desert means that sand keeps blowing onto the track and into our equipment. Last year we came very well prepared after our double test there, and I had a great race. This year some of the teams tested their new cars there before the start of the season. On Friday our first priority is to close this gap through our set-up work.” Robert Kubica:...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Malaysian GP - Race
    Created: Saturday, March 22, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Sepang (MAL). In the humid heat of Sepang the BMW Sauber F1 Team scored 11 championship points – the best result for the young crew so far. Robert Kubica finished second after a strong performance at the PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld was sixth, having lost ground right after the start. For the statistic books there were eight laps in the lead for Kubica, and Heidfeld set the first fastest lap of the race for the team and himself. After two of 18 races the BMW Sauber F1 Team is second in the Constructors’ Championship with 19 points. Robert Kubica: 2nd BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 Fastest Lap: 1.35.921 min on lap 39 (6th fastest) “It’s a fantastic day for the team, for Petronas and for me - the second consecutive podium. After Monza 2006 I finally managed to get another podium myself. I want to thank everybody in the team who worked very hard over the last two months to improve the car. I didn’t have a good start because of too much...
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  • Gremlins persist meeting Gabby Chaves in Sepang for a second time.
    Created: Saturday, March 22, 2008 Author: Jeff
     As most readers might know by now, Gabby's first race at the Sepang F1 Circuit was haunted by electrical gremlins, basically stopping his FBMW success temporarily. The crew worked diligently last night in conjunction with the FBMW technical staff to search for this annoying glitch. Today, getting out of the pre-grid area Gabby Chaves told Lucas, his engineer, that indeed the gremlins were still alive, and to the team's dismay, very well. Coming into the grid the FBMW staff and Lucas starting taken all kinds of wires, elements, boxes off and replacement parts were mounted within the 7 minute time line prior to start. Gabby started in 9th position, his second best qualifying time. Red lights off and the field got underway, with one car on a definitely early start, he was penalized with a drive-through. Gabby Chaves worked his way up to 5th position, the gremlins finally seemed to be tired of his persistence and gave up! After a close fight with one of the cars i...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Malaysian GP - Qualifying
    Created: Friday, March 21, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Sepang (MAL). BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, Robert Kubica and Hick Heidfeld, came sixth and seventh respectively in the qualifying session for the PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix. The BMW Sauber F1 Team is the only one that has managed to bring both cars into the top ten of qualifying for the twentieth consecutive time. Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 Qualifying 6th, 1.36.727 min (3rd practice: 17th, 1.36.618 min) “I’m quite happy with today’s performance, although just a little was missing for me to be on the second row of the grid. The unpredictable weather brought an additional thrill to the qualifying. With the set-up I chose, I knew that qualifying would not be easy for me, but over the weekend we have put a lot of effort into the race preparation so I’m optimistic for tomorrow. ” Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.08-04 / BMW P86/8 Qualifying 7th, 1.36.753 min (3rd practice: 1st, 1.35.019 min) “I’m very disappointed abo...
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  • Not only electrical gremlins hit Chaves!
    Created: Friday, March 21, 2008 Author: Jeff
    First race, rain, electrical failure and a good push to finish his first Formula BMW Pacific race - this summons up what Gabby Chaves experienced today in the afternoon. After the big question what tires to select, and having them changed twice at pre-gridding, finally the race was called a wet race and all teams changed again to full rain tires. Good choice as the tropical skies opened up and a refreshing downpour was hitting Formula BMW drivers and teams alike! Gabby was fast out of the grid, starting in 6th place and prior to the first turn he had made up three positions. Bad things happened - he called in to his engineer Lucas Strackerjan that his dash and engine experience cutouts. Nothing the team could do and he motored on in the rain. At that time the rain really became a downpour and visibility became an even more urgent issue,  especially if the driver went too close to the car in front of him. The # 6 car performance became worse, Gabby losing positio...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Malaysian GP - Practice
    Created: Thursday, March 20, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Sepang (MAL). The BMW Sauber F1 Team overall had a positive start to the weekend of the PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix in the humid heat of Sepang. Robert Kubica was eighth fastest in both free practice sessions on Friday, although he lost some track time in the morning due to a gear box change. As planned, Nick Heidfeld was able to tick off his to do list for the usual Friday set-up work and was 11th and 13th. Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 1st Practice : 8th, 1.37.218 min / 2nd Practice: 8th, 1.36.671 min “After I had lost quite some time in the morning session due to a gearbox problem, we mainly concentrated on evaluating different downforce configurations and comparing the tyres in the afternoon. We now have a lot of data available, which we have to analyse and understand in order to make the right decisions for the rest of the weekend. We haven’t had much time yet to work on the set-up of the car, so there is more to come.” Nick Heidfel...
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  • FBMW Gabby Chaves
    Created: Thursday, March 20, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Formula BMW Pacific - Atlantic Racing Team Today's first open practice in the Formula BMW Pacific Series, being a support event for the second round of the Formula One event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was a pleasant surprise for one of the youngest participants in this important development series. Gabby Chaves was right out of the pitlane one of the quicker drivers. After the usual settling down and finding the quickest way around the circuit, the whole field impressed the organizers with their speed. No major "off's" were reported. Once Gabby Chaves had the right feel for the car and track, he shaved off many seconds and closed the gap the second year Formula BMW drivers up to 1.23 seconds, giving him at the end a solid 6th place standing. This was an achievement of importance to Gabby, his first day in an official Formula BMW race weekend; a strong field of 14 drivers, many in their second year; his first time in Sepang; and the first time with Atlantic Ra...
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  • Sepang F1 - Gabby Chaves Qualifying FBMW Pacific
    Created: Thursday, March 20, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Having been for the third time on this fabulous Formula One track, Gabby Chaves showed that he is a definite force to reckon with. Atlantic Racing Team prepped the car as always with diligence and it paid off. Qualifying was only a 20 minute on-track event, counting for both races this weekend, therefore speedy lapping was on the day's first priority. Unfortunately and thanks to an eager bystander to help the team bringing the car to the pre-grid area, Atlantic Racing Team thought that he had touched the rear upper wing elements and mis-aligned it. While on the pre-grid ART decided to re-measure but time was running out. It then was decided to measure the wing once the car was in the pits for pressure and temperature. "When you deal with a total of 20 minutes on-track time, it really leaves you with little time to do anything" explains Ingo Strackerjan, Team Manager of ART; "as you lose basically two laps and five minutes plus pit time. Due to the leng...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Australian GP - Race
    Created: Saturday, March 15, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Melbourne (AUS).The BMW Sauber F1 Team has achieved its fifth podium in its short career. Nick Heidfeld came second at the Australian Grand Prix. Team mate Robert Kubica, who had started from second and lay in fifth position in the race, was unlucky when another car crashed into the rear of the Pole’s car at a restart. Nick Heidfeld: 2nd BMW Sauber F1.08-04 / BMW P86/8 Fastest Lap: 1.27.739 min on lap 41 (3rd fastest overall) “This was a fantastic start to the season for us. The team was working extremely hard to solve the problems we had in the beginning with the F1.08. We made constant progress and we have not exploited the full potential of the car yet. At the start I had too much wheel spin and could not keep Nico Rosberg behind me. I thought it is going to become a difficult race because I expected him to pit earlier. But we stopped on the same lap and our crew did a really great job to get me in front of him. With my second pit stop I was lucky that the safet...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Malaysian GP - Preview
    Created: Saturday, March 15, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Munich/Hinwil, 16th March 2008. The BMW Sauber F1 Team heads for a home event this coming weekend, exactly 9,778 kilometres distant from Munich and 10,012 kilometres from the Swiss headquarters at Hinwil: the Malaysian Grand Prix is held under the sponsorship of the team’s premium partner, Petronas. Nick Heidfeld: “For years now the Malaysian Grand Prix has been rather a special race for me. Petronas, of course, was already a partner of Sauber when I was driving for them from 2001 to 2003, and we used to do promotional tours around the country. As a Formula One driver you usually don’t get to see much beyond airports, hotels and race tracks as there simply isn’t the time to get to know a country and its people. But in Malaysia I’ve already managed to get around quite a bit and I feel very much at home there. It always takes a while to get acclimatised to the combination of heat and high humidity, but that’s never been a problem for me. The circuit...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Australian GP - Qualifying
    Created: Friday, March 14, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Melbourne (AUS). At the opening race of what is its third season the BMW Sauber F1 Team achieved its best ever qualifying result to date. In Melbourne Robert Kubica qualified in second position. Nick Heidfeld finished fifth in the expected breathtaking first battle of the year. In Q2, the part of qualifying that tells even more about the cars’ performance, Kubica and Heidfeld where second and fourth. In the morning’s third free practice they had been the leaders of the pack. Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 Qualifying 2nd, 1.26.869 min (3rd practice: 1st, 1.25.613 min) “P2 is a great achievement for the whole team, and that’s a good start to the season! I took a lot of risks in the second run of Q3, but finally it didn’t pay off. I went wide in corner twelve and ran on the artificial grass. This cost me between two and three tenths of a second and maybe pole position. We had quite a difficult day yesterday, but we were able to make a l...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Australian GP - Practice
    Created: Thursday, March 13, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Melbourne (AUS). Unusual heat, strong winds and consequently a high amount of dust in Melbourne’s Albert Park welcomed Formula One for the curtain raiser of the 2008 season. BMW Sauber F1 Team driver Robert Kubica enjoyed two trouble-free practice sessions. Nick Heidfeld’s car stopped with 30 minutes to go in the first session due to an electrical power cut, in the afternoon he completed his programme as scheduled. Robert Kubica: BMW Sauber F1.08-03 / BMW P86/8 1st Practice : 7th, 1.28.579 min / 2nd Practice: 15th, 1.28.860 min “As well as working on the set-up of the car, we concentrated mainly on comparing the two tyre compounds. Degradation is quite a big issue in these hot conditions. We have to analyse the data and find out how best to exploit the full potential of the tyres.” Nick Heidfeld: BMW Sauber F1.08-04 / BMW P86/8 1st Practice : 16th, 1.29.561 min / 2nd Practice: 12th, 1.28.731 min “I still find it very difficult to make a j...
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  • Atlantic Racing Team teams with Gabby Chaves.
    Created: Saturday, March 08, 2008 Author: Jeff
    PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  -  Issued by Atl. Racing Team Halifax, Nova Scotia 07/03/2008 Atlantic Racing Team of Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada will once again spread its wings, announcing the participation in the Formula BMW Pacific Series with Gabby Chaves of Bogota, Colombia. Gabby, as one of the youngest drivers in the FBMW Pacific series, participated until recently in the Skip Barber Racing School Regional Series. He has been known there as a strong front runner. "When we had the opportunity to test Gabby in our FB2 car here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we instantaneously recognized that there is a young driver, unlike so many we had tested before, with total insight of the car, track and team work! Not only was he fast, right from the get go but also consistent, fully focused and. really likable!" says Ingo Strackerjan, team manager and proceeds to explain "All this will help him and us to go to the Pacific series and be stron...
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  • BMW Sauber F1 Team - Australian GP - Preview
    Created: Thursday, March 06, 2008 Author: Jeff
    Munich/Hinwil, 7th March 2008. Things are hotting up. This weekend sees man and machinery embarking on the long trip to Australia. Everyone is on tenterhooks in anticipation of the first trial of strength in 2008 between the Formula One teams due to take place the following weekend, 14th – 16th March, in Melbourne’s Albert Park. For the BMW Sauber F1 Team, 80 people – from top brass to hostesses – will be flying down under. Around 32 tonnes of air freight will also be sent on its way from Munich. Among other items, this includes three chassis, the engines, several sets of spares, 160 alloy wheels, 100 radio sets, headphones, tools, computers and pit lane equipment. Everything is packed onto three ten-foot pallets and into five “igloos”, or walk-in packing containers. Standardised electronics and extended-life gearboxes were the technology issues over the winter, as dictated by the regulations. Striking aerodynamic solutions on the BMW Sauber F1.08 ...
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  • Top-3 positions for BMW drivers at WTCC season opener.
    Created: Saturday, March 01, 2008 Author: Jeff
    BMW experienced a successful start to the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship. In race two at Curitiba (BR), both Andy Priaulx (GB) of BMW Team UK and BMW Team Italy-Spain’s Félix Porteiro made it onto the podium by finishing second and third respectively. Jörg Müller (DE) and Augusto Farfus (BR) of BMW Team Germany completed the excellent team result by finishing fourth and sixth. In the first round of the new season, Farfus had crossed the finish line third. However, the 24-year-old was later excluded from race one due to a breach of the technical regulations. The “V” support for fixing the engine protection did not comply with the regulations. But the Stewards considered that there was no fraudulent intent within the team. Thus Müller moved up into third place, and Priaulx was classified fourth. Porteiro came sixth, while Alessandro Zanardi (IT) was 15th and 11th at the “Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba“. Following ...
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