BMW remain 'ambitious'

BMW SAUBER

Tuesday 5th February 2008

BMW Sauber boss Mario Theissen admits the team still need to "find half a second" if they want to be really competitive during this season's Formula One Championship.

The new F1.08 has made an encouraging start with both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld putting in strong performances during testing in Spain.

BMW had several reliability problems in 2007, but still finished second in the standings behind Ferrari following McLaren's disqualification.

Theissen told the German media: "In 2007, the car surprised us with its pace right from the first day of testing - but we had reliability problems.

"This year, the car has proven to be very reliable from day one but now we will focus on its performance. We have to find half a second more than the most competitive teams. That's a major challenge. But we are - above all - ambitious."

Theissen, though, accepts that there is still a lot of room for improvement on the F1.08.

"It's easy to recognise that every square centimetre of the car has been revised - resulting in brand-new solutions that haven't been seen anywhere else, to date," he said.

"Throughout the year, we care about making our car faster."

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