BMW victory push no hindrance for 2009

With BMW Sauber having had a better than expected start to the year, the team are likely to face a season-long development push as they bid for wins and perhaps even a world championship challenge.

But a major rules overhaul for next year means teams are having to switch resources to their 2009 challengers much earlier than normal - and that could be a problem for those outfits forced to develop their cars longer this season.

Theissen is well aware that some difficult choices will have to be made in the next few months about the team's 2008 and 2009 programmes, but was hopefully they would be able to manage both.

"It is a concern, you are right," he told autosport.com when asked about the dilemma teams face in sorting out their resources for 2008.

"We are at about 700 people, and I know the two established top teams are way beyond that. We have one wind tunnel, while some teams have two and can do 2009 aero work in parallel to their 2008 programme.

"But we will try to cope with the situation as good as we did so far, and we should be able to have a strong car next year. Certainly we are well aware of the necessity to develop the 2009 car already."

In the shorter team, Theissen has vowed to look into resolving the poor starts that Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica have suffered from this season - especially as Kubica clearly lost out to Felipe Massa on the run away from pole position in Bahrain.

"We had one minor problem at the start," said Theissen, looking back at Sakhir. "Both drivers lost position probably due to a technical problem, which we have to analyse. If it was a technical problem then of course we have to solve it for the next race."