BMW vow to push to match top teams

BMW have made steady progress since taking over the Sauber team, and the German squad have become Formula One's third strongest outfit this year, having scored 61 points in the first ten races.

Last year, the team scored 36 points in total on their way to fifth place in the standings. This year they nearly twice as many points as world champions Renault, currently in fourth place, with seven races to go.

Theissen, however, says his team's goal is to reach the top and start winning races.

"We entered Formula One to win," said Theissen the team's official website. "And we have made good progress on our way to achieving this goal.

"We started as eighth in the championship and consistently worked our way up - via fifth place - to now having established ourselves as third power on the grid. That's more than most people believed we would be able to achieve.

"We won't be satisfied until we have succeeded in closing the gap to the top teams. And at the very front, the competition is that tough that you have to talk about one percent here or two percent there if you are to close in on the front-runners."

The team will receive a further boost later this year, when work to upgrade their Hinwil factory is completed.

"We are working on the fine tuning now," he added. "And experience is a crucial factor in this area. At the end of the year, the upgrading of our Hinwil plant will be completed and all the new employees will be aboard. Then we will have achieved our full strength."