Still a lot of work waiting for us

Following the French Grand Prix, BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen analyses the difficult race held at the "Circuit de Nevers". Nick Heidfeld only finished in 13th position while team mate Robert Kubica finished in 5th position, collecting 4 championship points. The team still has a lot of work to do according to Mario Theissen:

"Two weeks ago, having secured our one-two in Canada, the entire team was over the moon. Following this weekend's race, however, the mood was subdued. At the French Grand Prix, Robert finished fifth while Nick had to settle for 13th place. Quite obviously, we had expected to do better at Magny-Cours. But both the qualifying and the race turned out to be difficult for us.

"Throughout the weekend, our package failed to work perfectly. As early as the practice sessions both our drivers said that the car wasn't handling as well as it usually does. We experimented with the set-up and also changed from the harder to the softer tire compound and vice versa. But whatever we tried – the progress was limited.

"The start of the race brought a preliminary decision: Robert was fifth on the grid and was fiercely determined to pass Jarno Trulli right away – but failed to do so. This had a particular impact on the second stint, when Robert was stuck behind the Italian. He could have gone faster than the Toyota driver, but not fast enough to put him under serious pressure. In the end, this problem cost him dearly. In this period of time, McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen consistently closed the gap to Robert and, following his second pit stop, the Finn rejoined the race ahead of Robert.

"Nick, who had been eleventh on the grid, lost two positions right at the start. Consequently, he was hampered by a lot of traffic and had no chance of gaining positions. Obviously, finishing 13th at Magny-Cours was a disappointment for him. On the other hand, the French GP weekend also had its encouraging aspects for Nick. He took a major step toward making better use of the car's potential in the qualifying session. In Q2, he was just six hundredths of a second slower than Robert. Unfortunately he just missed out on the top-ten qualifying.

"Maybe it's not such a bad thing that the high in Montreal and the low encountered at Magny-Cours occurred back-to-back. This demonstrates that there still is a lot of work waiting for us. On Tuesday we start testing at Silverstone, the venue of the next race in two weeks time. We want to regain our usual form there." Source BMW Sauber