All winter testing long BMW had no stellar testing times. There was a lot of trouble with cars that stopped on the track etc. I often read the news from Switzerland and the reports were always suspiciously ambigious: They weren't really condemning BMW for having built a crap car, but they weren't enthusiastic either. I thought it was bias for the home team and that the truth was that the BMW was crap. Well, the qualifying performance in Melbourne spoke a different story and now I start to wonder whether this was all just sandbagging and BMW is the new black horse. I for one would wish them the best of luck and hope they get some podiums and their first victory.
I hope so - it would be a great season if Ferrari get their reliability in order. I still would have preferred to see FA in a BMW though, because I think the chances of the Renault being any factor this season are slim. Regardless, RK was more than respectable in qualifying - Massa will have a hard time getting around HK. My opinion: Hamilton walks away with this one while Kubica is more focused on holding Kovalainen off. I think Kimi ends up no better than 8th. Massa ends up 3rd. Peter
Interesting if true they hid it well, on the other hand there car package may have just clicked together at the right time. Great to see them in contention though.
It is nice to see the BMW so competitive and Kubica doing a stellar job, but I too wish FA had gone there after witnessing the Renault's performance yesterday.
i seriously hope BMW can take the fight to Mclaren and Ferrari. heck, it'll be better if Williams can join in the fun. but there's some gossip in the Aussie paddock that BMWs are fast on a single lap, but as the tyre wears down, it affect the car's balance a lot, so we'll see tomoro.
The pre-season reports were that BMW was having difficulty preserving the rear tires without TC. Perhaps they got that problem solved for this weekend?
SPOILER Maybe Heidfeld has been. Kubica outqualified NH by a few tenths AFTER taking a stroll through the grass. Certainly it will be very interesting to see how they during the race.
All in all the cars all seem to be more competitive this year. There aren't the huge gaps there was last year (not counting Super Aguri of course...). I don't think BMW has been sandbagging at all. I believe they had a great car, but suffered from various problems up until this weekend. I don't see what a team would gain from sandbagging, it sure wouldn't help the team figure out what their car is capable of. They may be one of the biggest stories of the year if they can manage to match the pace of the McLaren's throughout the season.
It'll take more more than 1 flying lap for me to change my mind and believe they were sandbagging. If they can keep that pace up all race long, I think you may be onto something.
Even so, what would they gain from sandbagging? I think they were just able to fix the balance problems they had. That was their biggest (only?) negative issue about the new car.
Maybe to prevent the other team from spying on their stuff because they *think* it doesn't work that well. If BMW was breaking track records left and right, I'm sure Ferrari and McMerc would be learning everything about the BMW as much as they could. I know they already have people taking many photos of the other cars, but the effort put in after getting all the "evidence" may be less if they think it's slow and not working. No one probably bothers looking at a Honda for instance (on or off the track for that matter, lol).
We don't know how well they will preserve the tires over the span of a race. Hamilton and Kubica might eat through their tires during the race.
Tire wear is going to be the big unknown for all teams. The lack of T/C will wear out the tires real fast if the driver isn't careful. An aside: According to SpeedTV the cars are running dirtier (more unburned fuel in the exhaust) without the engine controls. How does this reconcile with the new green image?
Isn't hamilton known for being bad at preserving tires? A la, china last year when he went into the gravel trap going into the pits.
I think he was on the wrong set of tires at the time and out for many more laps than he needed to be.
I think BMW did sandbag to throw off the other teams. Really. They were pitting early this race, but still pulled it off. Interesting. I guess the hot laps on the car come a few laps after fresh tires, cause that would make them fly when the other teams would pit. Where as Ferrari normally stay out longer, turn the hot laps at the end of the tires' life and then duck into the pits. This tells me Ferrari technically have an easier car on tires, but you can't ignore the facts from the race conclusion.... BMW placed SOLID and showed qucik lap pace of the McLaren, if not full race speed ( Hamilton's huge gap on everyone right away was WOOOOWWWW impressive.) All in all, I would say BMW is a very very strong 3rd place very close to Ferrari and McLaren. Consistent podiums for sure this year. Win(s) possible if they keep it up! Awesome.
That is exactly what Roger Benoit thinks as well now. And he is probably the journalist closest to the team.
In this day what would the point of sand bagging be? Is the idea that other teams wouldn't try as hard if they weren't worried about BMW? Unless there's some technical innovation that they're trying to fly under the radar???
