BMW Sauber aims for its first Grand Prix win in 2008The BMW Sauber F1 Team started working on the design of the F1.08 car as early as mid-2007. Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the Munich and Hinwil-based squad, reveals the strategy the team opted for when it came to
designing the challenger for the 2008 season.
"In order to make a step forward our engineers pushed it to the limit in many different areas, such as aerodynamics, suspension, cooling, brakes, steering feedback and others," Rampf says.
In a field where even minor touches to one section of the car can have major effects on another, working on modifications in so many areas at once is a risk in itself - a risk that BMW Sauber chose to take in order to reach its objectives, explains Rampf: "This approach is the only option if you want to close the gap to the frontrunners. You don't get to the top just by being conservative."
During the 2007 Formula One season,
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica already succeeded in regularly giving the top teams a hard time.
This year, the expectations are even higher: Rampf underlines that realising the team's self-set goal - to win a Grand Prix - will be impossible if it opts for a solely conservative approach.
"The benchmark in Formula One is on a level that forces you to take calculated risks. And that's exactly what we did," declares Rampf.
"For us as a team it's a new experience to work on such a level and we are going through a learning process which will make us even more competitive," he concludes.
Source: BMW Sauber
