BMW not ready to write off 2009

Although BMW Sauber's world title hopes appear all but over, with the F1.09 having proved not to be a match for the pace-setting Brawn or Red Bull Racing cars, Theissen has vowed to keep pushing on with car development.

The team introduced its version of a double-decker diffuser for the first time in Turkey last weekend, and it allowed Robert Kubica to score his first points of the year.

And although victories still seem out of reach for now, Theissen says that no consideration is being given to abandoning efforts on this year to focus on its 2010 machine instead.

"I'm often asked these days if it wouldn't be better to simply stop working on the enhancement of the F1.09 and fully focus on our 2010 challenger instead," Theissen told the official BMW Sauber website.

"But this doesn't represent an option for us. We won't give up on the current season - far from it.

"We have increased our development pace and will bring significant improvements for the car to every second or third race from now on. Improvements that will also compromise enhanced versions of the twin diffuser.

"At the end of the season we want to be able to say: 'We encountered a disappointing start to the season but we succeeded in turning things around and making it back to the front end of the field'."

Theissen fully expects his team to start making good progress up the field now that its double decker diffuser is on board.

"The race at Istanbul was the first we contested with our new twin diffuser. And the new component proved to be useful," he explained.

"Our car was fast enough at Istanbul to score points without having to benefit from any on-track incidents or the bad luck of other drivers. Obviously this isn't enough to make anyone in the team complacent but it represents a basis we can use for our next enhancements."