Question: In comparison to your recent podium results, Hungary was not a great race for BMW Sauber. What happened?
Mario Theissen: Well, this race has to be seen differently. Our performance on Friday was reasonable, the performance on Saturday in qualifying was good to very good, but our performance in the race was completely different. It looked like we weren’t there, that the race went on without us. At no point did Robert (Kubica) or Nick (Heidfeld) come close to the lap times they did in qualifying. And I have to admit that I don’t know the reason yet. What we certainly will look into is the equation of car, set-up, tyres and track conditions. If you look at Robert’s qualifying time he should have been able to fight at the front but in reality, in certain phases of the race, he was the slowest car on the track. What happened in the race was completely unexpected.
Question: Could it be that the Hungaroring simply isn’t BMW Sauber’s track?
Mario Theissen: I would not agree with that. In the last two years we have been on the podium, so there must be another explanation behind this disappointing performance. We were not just slow, we were also inconsistent. Like at Ferrari, we also witnessed that one car was doing much better than the other. There was something out there that we did not understand.
Question: You are fully supportive of KERS and its introduction next year. Do you understand why some teams are hesitant?
Mario Theissen: Yes, I can understand them. There are reasons that have to be considered. On the one hand is the safety aspect and it goes without saying that we will not run KERS unless we are sure that those problems have been solved - and I am very confident that this will be the case. On the other hand there are financial aspects. And here I can understand the viewpoint of the independent teams, as for them KERS means an additional financial burden. But I would not consider this to be an argument for manufacturer teams because the development would continue even if we postponed KERS for one year. A technical development has never got cheaper by postponing it. And there is another side to the matter, which is immensely important even though it is not openly discussed, about the competitiveness of being with or without KERS. That issue must not be underestimated.
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