Hungarian GP - Spoilers/Disappointment/Official Press Release

Uggg, is anyone else really disappointed in BMW right now? They were looking strong at the begining of the season but now Kubica and Hiedfeld can't seem to get any balance or grip out of the car/tires. The past couple races they both complain about tire issues. This sucks

Here is the official press release -

BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM - HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX - RACE

Budapest (HU). A single point is the scant booty for the BMW Sauber F1 Team after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Although Robert Kubica had a good grid position (4th) he finished eighth and only just made it into the points. Nick Heidfeld’s chances were very limited anyway as he was 15th on the grid. A one stop strategy elevated him to tenth.

Weather: Dry and sunny. Air: 29-30°C, Track: 29-45°C

Robert Kubica: 8th - BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
Fastest Lap: 1:21.941 min on lap 70 (9th fastest overall)
“This was a difficult race. We were very slow and I was struggling with the overall grip of the car. I had massive oversteer and could not really push. I was trying hard to keep the car on the track. Anyway, one point is better than nothing.”

Nick Heidfeld: 10th - BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
Fastest Lap: 1:22.183 min on lap 67 (11th fastest overall)
“My start wasn’t perfect but okay. As I had hoped, I was able to overtake three cars on the first lap. But later it became more difficult than expected to race with the heavy car. We went for a one stop strategy, so my car was almost full of fuel at the start and I also had to take care of the tires. I couldn’t match the pace of the cars in front of me. Now we have to analyze today’s lack of race pace. Normally this is one of our strengths!”

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
“We were completely off the pace during the race. Neither driver was able to do the lap times we expected after the sessions on Friday and Saturday. It was the same on both tyre compounds. The reason for that is currently not clear, but we shall analyze everything. Congratulations to Heikki Kovalainen for his maiden win in F1 and, of course, Timo Glock for his strong weekend, crowned by finishing second.”

Willy Rampf (Technical Director)
“Of course we are very disappointed with today’s performance. Now we need to analyze why we were not able to match our qualifying performance during the race. We shall do this in the factories in Hinwil and Munich because, due to the testing break, we are not able to test before the next race in Valencia in three weeks.”

Overall, it was a good race. I certainly would like for Kubica or Heidfeld to have run a more productive race(points, that is) but the competition is awesome. Masa, Kovalainen,Räikkönen,Barrichello, Coulthard. These guys are the best of the best. Kubica and Heidfeld are still relatively young in their careers and I'm sure will have very productive years.
Ferarri...McLaren-Mercedes; what can I say. Decades of expertise and product.
Maybe not this year, but........

I certainly believe that there were certain factors involved in this race that prevented BMW from doing better. The beginning of it was the fact that race day was hotter than P1, P2 and Qual days. This threw the tire selection out the door. Bridgestone probably made the right decisions with the tires, but it seems to me that if it's going to be hot with a track temp of 44 deg. C, you should be running a bit harder of a compound. You have a track that is already harsh on tires, why would you go to Soft as PRIME and Super Soft as OPTION? I think they should have done med/soft as PRIME and soft as OPTION. This may have saved Lewis Hamilton from his puncture.

The Q1 blocking of Heidfeld by Sebastien Bourdais was certainly visible. I saw it right away when it happened and was going "what the hell!?" when it happened. Heidfeld was certainly off pace in Q1, but I think that had he not been blocked, he would not have been relegated so soon and would have at least advanced to Q2. I'm not entirely sure he'd have made it to Q3, but at least getting to Q2 gets you out of the stigma placed on the less than great teams like STR and Force-India.

The oversteer is probably due to a combination of the tires being too soft and having too much traction and the downforce on the front end. BMW isn't shy about admitting that they run a great deal of front end downforce in order to keep the cars from developing understeer. In this case, they probably had too much downforce, which didn't mate well with the softer compound tires. Bridgestone rarely chooses Super Softs and Softs for their race tires. It's just not that common. The tires probably heated up to the point where they were sticking more than BMW thought they would. BMW maybe thought that the tires would get slippery quicker with the high heat, so they wanted to adjust downforce accordingly. Also, with turns like the uphill turn 8 (or is it 9?) where the apex is at the top of the hill, you need downforce to keep you planted, since there's no road camber to help you and your car is off balanace. That may have hindered things as well with downforce predictions.

All in all, I think that it's a fluke and a bad track for BMW. Every team has one track that they just can't seem to master. The way the cars are designed, every car has its own strong tracks and weak tracks. Most tracks are probably good for most of the cars, but some cause problems. We all know that the McLarens are known for their suspensions and cornering, which is why they are so well balanced on tire wear. Ferrari is known for their speed and power, and they over-wear their front tires early. BMW is no different. BMW is known for their handling and cornering, but their aerodynamics/downforce is pretty impressive. They seem to wear easy on their tires and hold corners pretty well. BMWs don't really spin out or lose too much grip compared to other teams.

I'm confident that BMW Sauber will be back in the running next race in Valencia. I would like to see some improvement in both their driving, but I think it was probably just an off weekend for them. At least we managed to get another point. That at least makes us better than Force-India and STR.