So far the new front wing BMW Sauber brought to the British Grand Prix hasn’t had the effect they wanted. That combined with numerous technical problems Robert Kubica has had both on Friday and Saturday has made this another difficult weekend.

In Q1 both Heidfeld and Kubica managed to get through to Q2 by the skin of their teeth. As all drivers prepared for their last flying lap to ensure getting to Q2 Heidfeld and Kubica were virtually on the bubble sitting in the pit when with 23 seconds left in the session Adrian Sutil crashed hard, a crash that red flagged the session and canceled all of the laps underway and effectively ending the session. Who knows, but the last flying laps all canceled may have bumped both Heidfeld and Kubica out of Q2.

Although posting respectable times compared to anything they had done all weekend neither driver could move through to the final Q3 with Kubica finishing 12th and Heidfeld finishing 15th. No doubt both drivers will be heavy for the race.

Robert Kubica:

BMW Sauber F1.09-03 / BMW P86/9
Qualifying 12th, 1:19.308 min in Q2 (3rd Free Practice: 20th, 1:21.039 min)

“This has been a very difficult weekend so far. Yesterday, I had technical problems in both sessions and then again this morning. During the three free practice sessions I had maybe ten laps without any problems, which was simply not enough to do the necessary work. No surprise that the set-up of the car was not very good in qualifying. P12 was the maximum I could achieve under the circumstances.”

Nick Heidfeld:

BMW Sauber F1.09-06 / BMW P86/9
Qualifying 15th, 1:19.448 min in Q2 (3rd Free Practice: 18th, 1:20.696 min)

“Being 15th on the grid is obviously disappointing, although I have to admit I didn’t have too high expectations before we came here. We brought a new front wing to this race, but other teams apparently have bigger updates. It will be difficult to collect points from where we are starting – that is if it stays dry, which is something you never can rely on here in Silverstone. However, for the next races we have more new parts, so we will keep working and never give up.”

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):

“Obviously we are not satisfied with the qualifying result. Our goal was to get into the top 10. It did not help Robert that he has had technical problems in every free practice session, and therefore was not able to do proper set-up work.”

Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering):

“So far it has been a very difficult weekend for us, and that continued in qualifying. With starting positions 12 and 15 we are not satisfied. A main problem was getting the ideal tyre temperatures in these cold conditions. Even with our new aero-update that did not work out.”