BMW Sauber Ready For Chinese Grand Prix

Topics:  Chinese Grand Prix, BMW-Sauber

Anthony Fontanelle
October 3, 2007

The current Formula One season is nearing its end. Two races to go and the constructors' championship was already decided with Ferrari taking this year's to price after McLaren was disqualified in connection with the Ferrari spying scandal. The drivers' championship is also almost on the hands of rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton of McLaren after his win at the recently concluded Japanese Grand Prix. But for BMW Sauber, the next season is just an extension of what they are doing now to move closer to frontrunners McLaren and Ferrari.

At the next race, the Chinese Grand Prix, the team of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will be looking to end their campaign this season on a high note. The team has performed well this season surprising Toyota, Honda, Williams, and defending champion Renault. And next year, BMW Sauber will be looking to be a serious competition for Ferrari or McLaren.

At the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld has this to say about the track: "Turns one, two and three are among my favourite sections in the race calendar. You approach the first turn at high speed, go into it flat out, but then the corner increasingly tightens up and you have to shift right down to second."

"Making a clean exit will be even more interesting next year when we'll be driving without traction control again. Overall I'm rather fond of this circuit. Although it's so new, the track layout has a natural feel and a character about it. The paddock and the grandstands are also very distinctive and absolutely huge in size."

"The same goes for a number of buildings in downtown Shanghai, but the ultramodern skyscrapers, hotels and restaurants along the Bund are just part of the picture. In a lot of districts and in the surrounding areas you'll come across grinding poverty. This year my family will be joining me for the Asian tour and I hope we'll find a little time to visit the nicer sides of the city together."

Robert Kubica on the other hand looks back to last year's race saying: "After Fuji we go straight to China. Last year's Grand Prix was pretty interesting for me with qualifying wet and then touching with Robert Doornbos at the start of the race. I gained a lot of positions but then when the track was drying we put the grooved tyres on too early." Both Kubica and Heidfeld will be racing at the Chinese go with their BMW strut -equipped F1.07 car.

Like Heidfeld, the Polish Formula One driver also find the track a "nice" one. "Quite a nice track with, again, a very long straight. Maybe there is an overtaking possibility at the end of the long back straight. This is very long, but it is not easy because before the straight there is a really quick right hand corner and it is always difficult to follow the cars very closely there."

Source:  Amazines.com