Conflicting stories emereged today from the BMW camp regarding the potential of the F1.08. Nick Heidfeld seemed disappointed that the car is still not on the pace of the Ferraris and McLarens, although it has improved to have an edge over the Renaults, Williams and Red Bulls. And Robert Kubica pointed once again at instability as being its major shortcoming. He also cautioned against taking too much notice of test times, mentioning that these often disguised the true performance of the cars.
Robert Kubica in the BMW F1.08
It is all a bit worrying if you support BMW in their drive to win races this year. We have heard such guarded comments from teams in previous years and usually they are the prelude to a disappointing season. Looking at the times from Jerez today, there is even less cause for optimism; Kubica could manage no better than fifth fastest and Heidfeld was way down in eleventh.
Disregarding Webber's Red Bull, which was almost half a second quicker than anyone else, the times are very close, however, little more than second separating the second fastest man, Rosberg, from Heidfeld. If we ignore Kubica's warning for a moment, it seems that Red Bull, Williams, Renault and BMW are all in the fight for third behind Ferrari and McLaren (I take it that Hamilton's sixth fastest time was not representative of the McLaren's true speed).
That suggests a battle royal in store for us this season but it should be remembered that Ferrari are looking much the quickest at the moment. On the evidence so far, the top two remain the same and have kept their advantage over the rest - it is behind them that all the action will take place.
The BMW drivers are hoping that the car will be improved dramatically before the Australian GP. Once again, the story is that they know where the problem is and what needs to be done to fix it. I can only pray that they are right - who wants yet another season dominated by the same old teams?
This morning I was going to attempt a post on the racism problem that has erupted in F1. That will require quite a long article, however, and a brainwave occured during my research for it, leaving me with no time to do anything more than glance hastily at the times from Jerez. Maybe tomorrow...
Of the brainwave, well, perhaps much more will come of that later.