January launch for 2009 BMW Sauber

With the Formula One season being over, all the teams are already preparing their monoposts for next year. Every year in January, BMW reveals their new F1 models an event that draws a lot of attention. 2008 was a great season for the BMW Sauber team who achieved all of their goals and more, but I always had a feeling they could have done better. The winning of the first two places in the Montreal Grand Prix was the highlight of their season, a season that ended with them in the 3rd place in constructors championship.

The F1.09 will make its first public appearance in testing at Valencia in Spain. With the new monopost, BMW has high hopes for this upcoming season. The team believes that major changes to the Formula One regulations for 2009, including the return of slick tyres, aerodynamic restrictions and the introduction of KERS to recover waste energy from braking, could play into their advantage.

Here is what BMW’s Team boss Mario Theissen said:

“In 2009, Formula One will have to face arguably the most dramatic rule changes in the history of the sport,” he said.

“Due to the aerodynamic restrictions, the appearance of the single-seaters will differ massively from this year’s Formula One cars. To cut a long story short: the front will be bulkier, there won’t be any winglets and superstructures in front of and on the side pods respectively – and the rear wing will be smaller and positioned higher.

“Furthermore, slicks will make their comeback. In addition, the introduction of the KERS technology for the recovery of brake energy is in the offing. As a result, drivers will have to adapt to new situations in three vital areas of their working environment. And the engineers will have to carry out a lot of work.”

BMW have already announced that they will retain both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld for next season.

2 Responses to “January launch for 2009 BMW Sauber”

Gragop says:

November 6, 2008 at 10:54 am

I’m excited to see the F1.09 released. I’m also glad to see that the FIA is getting back to the basics of driver skills by taking out the overly complicated aerodynamics and “winglets.” Hopefully we’ll see a return to say, 1969 to 1977 cars?

Seriously though, the F1.09 should be a very competitive car as BMW Sauber has really gotten their feet under themselves and is ready to meet competition head-on.

BMWF1Guy says:

November 7, 2008 at 6:34 pm

I had the luck of seeing some preliminary drawings of the 2009 Honda F1. It was sort of clandestine shall I say, sort of looking over someone’s shoulder. Anyway, the drawings looked crazy different and I’m not sure I like the look. Smaller, but higher rear wing is one change and it really does dominate the car.

KERS I like and we’ll see just how the final development of KERS feels.