Back in the early part of March just before the Australian Grand Prix, I would have imagined writing some pretty great things about the BMW Sauber team. Commenting on wins, podiums, how close either Kubica or Heidfeld would be to a championship challenge etc. How things change in just a short time however and now it’s just the opposite wondering when or if there will even be another podium finish this season.

Approaching the Spanish Grand Prix, I had some hope that the upgrades scheduled for release would improve the team fairly dramatically. Well realism stepped in when the improvement was minimal, but there. Afterall BMW Sauber were not the only team to introduce upgrades which limited the effectiveness of what the team had achieved. That meant to me that any more possible gains would have to wait until Turkey and that Monaco would be another washout and it was.

Monaco demands heavy downforce allowing for good speed going into and out of the corners of which there are plenty and that alone would prove to be an F1.09 killer even before the weekend started. The car is still severely lacking any meaningful downforce and it showed massively from Thursday practice on though the weekend. Not only are the team chasing better grip, but now after almost flawless reliability, cracks are beginning in that department and the victim this weekend again was Robert Kubica. First a dramatic engine blow early in Thursday practice session 2 and then brake problems during the race that forced him to retire on lap 22.

The situation is difficult now, not that the car hasn’t improved, but that so has every other car on the track. Looking at lap times throughout the race and you see the gaps from 1st to last have closed substantially from Australia, but for BMW Sauber, this keeps them at the bottom of the pack. Monaco was a tough race for the team knowing that achieving anything was going to be all but impossible and Heidfeld finishing 11th was actually outstanding considering the situation they are in. Nick always finishes a race and when starting at the back consistently manages to get some good breaks, anticipate these breaks, and use his pit strategy to his advantage. These are the reasons for his climb to 11th place and not the performance of the car.

Frustration is starting to show in the team and visibly with the drivers. During the Monaco weekend Kubica was seen ranting to Heidfeld who sat with him nodding his head in agreement. This speaks volumes to the competitiveness of Heidfeld and Kubica and the hopes they had this season seemingly going down the drain. Mario Theissen has said some things he doesn’t normally say, but for the most part is portraying a positive attitude to the media and is anticipating something much better when they introduce their version of a double decker diffuser in Turkey beginning the 5th of June.

It is by the race in Turkey we will most likely see where BMW Sauber will reside for the remainder of the season and I hope it will at least be near the top 10.