BMW still developing 2007 car

The Hinwil-based team are 41 points ahead of nearest challengers Renault and, with their rivals having only scored 36 points in the first 12 races of the season there seems little chance of being beaten.

Despite that comfortable margin, however, BMW-Sauber are adamant that they want to keep making progress with their F1.07 even though a lot of effort is already being put into their 2008 challenger.

"We expect to do a bigger step (for 2008) than the two teams ahead of us, as this is the only way to catch up," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen.

"We have switched more than 50 percent of our R&D capacity to the F1.08 already and we are very busy with that. I hope we can do a step as big as between last year and this year.

"But when I say that we have switched more than 50 percent to next year's car, that still means there is quite a significant amount for this year's car.

"We will still have several improvements for the coming five races on this front. We certainly push. We want to get more podiums this year."

Race driver Robert Kubica says he is hopeful the team can make progress over the winter, but is reluctant to expect too much.

"Expecting is difficult, but we will try to do our best," he said. "We have good facilities and good people to do it, but in F1 you never know.

"I don't have to mention the name of the teams who from really expecting good results they went backwards. I hope it is not our case.

"I think we are pretty confident that our new car will work well. But there are also some questions about how the car will behave without traction control and all the systems. But I am pretty confident."