BMW Sauber have now wrapped up their winter testing schedule and are going home for final preparations for the 2009 F1 season.

First, gathering any real and specific information on the team’s progress has of course been next to impossible, but we are able to see what’s happening on track and come up with our own opinions. Reliability, speed, and handling are of course subjective when questions posed to the team are answered with a lot of political savvy rather than specific information. None the less, BMW Sauber seem to be on the right track for a title challenge.

Reliability has always been a boasting point for the team especially after completing the entire 2008 season without a dnf due to the car itself. Testing this winter started off of course and straight out of the box reliability didn’t seem to be a big issue. Certainly problems did pop up, but they were minor in nature and corrected quickly with no recurrence of the same issues again. BMW Sauber`s final test session in Barcelona this week saw hundreds of kilometers put on the car including full race distance testing, starts, and pit work with not a reliability issue in sight.

KERS has been tested extensively this winter and after a few initial problems including safety, not much was reported and no problems were evident. This leads me to believe that the team`s KERS system is working well, but Mario Theissen remains on the fence when asked if it will be used in Melbourne.

The speed of the F1.09 seems to be there and when asked for hot laps, both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were able to respond, but more importantly this years times were the same or better than posted this time last year with the F1.08. I often say that testing times are fairly irrelevant, but when looking at times and paying particular attention to consistency, it isn`t hard to see that the F1.09 is a fast car. At this time, I put it up there with Ferrari, but don`t hold me to that in Melbourne. Anything can happen by then.

Down force, balance and grip were the biggest challenge and after a lot of work, both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica seem to be fairly happy with grip. By the end of the day yesterday Robert Kubica was echoing what Nick Heidfeld has said, that the car handles well. I can`t say much more on that other than neither Nick or Robert had a trip into the gravel all winter.

Melbourne is just a few weeks away and from my standpoint, the team seems in pretty good shape to compete for wins and the drivers championship with either one of their drivers. The immediate competition for the front may have changed a little at this point with Ferrari, BMW Sauber, and Toyota being touted as the best cars through testing. Toyota is a bit of a surprise, but they have put together a great package and look strong. The other team of note is McLaren who have had a dismal winter with reliability problems, a couple of crashes, and generally a car that remains off the pace. That said, it is early and all teams still have a few tricks up their sleeves for Melbourne. I look for BMW Sauber to be right up there as a serious challenger this season.