24/05/2007
NEWS STORY
The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers were the busiest of all in the first two practice sessions for the Monaco Grand Prix as between them Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld covered 150 laps. The focus was on the tyre choice for the most prestigious F1 race on the calendar.
Robert Kubica: It was quite a good day as we did a lot of testing. We concentrated mainly on the long runs to how the tyres were behaving, because this morning we had quite a lot of graining. We changed the set-up of the car to improve it and, in fact, in the afternoon we put the new set of tyres on early just to run them in the end on long runs. We have to work a bit on the set-up and chose the best compromise. Now we are waiting for Saturday for the weather as some forecast predict rain.
Nick Heidfeld: My lap times don't look good, but it isn't that bad. I had problems with the fuel pressure and, of course, when the engine cuts out it costs time. Apart from this both sessions went well, and in the morning the track had a surprisingly high amount of grip. Today we have tested both tyre compounds properly. For the race it is not only important to get a good grid position, especially because overtaking is so difficult, but also the right strategy is extremely important. Another factor for the strategy is the new safety car rule. There is a higher probability of the safety car coming out here than elsewhere.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): Overall we are very pleased with the day. This relates to the set-up of the cars as well as the race preparation. Monaco is always a special challenge. Not only is its layout unique, but it has also a special surface that changes a lot during the sessions and makes it difficult to find the right direction for setting up the cars. Nick's car suffered a fuel pressure problem which affected his lap times, but we will solve it before tomorrow. For me it's positive to see the parts which we developed specifically for this race obviously work well.
To check out our Monaco practice gallery, click here