BMW reassign chief designer Zander
BMW Sauber have reassigned their chief designer Jorg Zander from the chassis department in Hinwil to BMW's powertrain factory in Munich in a bid to resolve their reliability problems
"I was not entirely happy with division of labour there and since Jorg Zander brought with him quite a lot of experience with powertrains, we felt we should use his knowledge," said team boss Mario Theissen.
Issues with the F1.07's gearbox disrupted BMW's otherwise promising pre-season testing programme and also led to Robert Kubica's retirement from fourth place in Melbourne.
Zander's move means that Willy Rampf is currently performing a combined technical director and chief designer role, as he did prior to Zander's arrival from Williams in April 2006. BMW have not revealed whether they intend to recruit a new chief designer.
Rampf said that the team have identified the root of the gearbox problems.
"Within one millisecond you have hydraulic pressures building up in the region of 200 bar," he said. "Such enormous strains you do not encounter in normal hydraulic systems.
"It was always the same sealing which started leaking so what we did now is to reduce the mileage of those sealings."
Share Or Save This Story
Hamilton accepts blame for incident with Albon in F1 Brazilian GP
Ferrari drivers called to F1 stewards over Brazilian GP collision
Will Alonso's Indy failure end the age of versatility?
Formula E Shanghai E-Prix: Di Grassi grabs Lola’s first win, Wehrlein takes championship lead
F1 to decide before summer break on recovering Middle Eastern race
“They shouldn't ask me that anymore” – Why Verstappen doesn't believe in another Red Bull comeback
How “stressed” Antonelli beat his nerves – and Leclerc – in British GP qualifying
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments