Heidfeld unsure about BMW's form

That is the verdict of Nick Heidfeld who, despite feeling confident that the team can get things sorted before the Australian Grand Prix, admits that their new car has not yet delivered what he had hoped.

"Last year (at this stage) things seemed better to me," said Heidfeld during testing at Valencia in Spain. "Last year the balance was there quicker and we were more where we expected to be.

"But I cannot yet say this car is worse, because I think we know what areas we have to work on. We are quite confident that by Melbourne we will be able to be where we scheduled ourselves to be."

When asked by autosport.com to describe what the car's handling felt like, he said: "On the balance side we are not yet where we would like to be.

"We already saw that last week. We had some improvements here, and we know where we have to work. We have to get new parts on a daily basis and I think we will improve the car quite quickly to where we should be.

"There are some parts still in the wind tunnel which are not on the car yet. But even without those, we expected to have a car that had a nicer balance.

"We've made some set up changes and the aero adjustment is getting better, but it is still not where it should be."

BMW Sauber have set their sights on a maiden Formula One victory this year after finishing second in the constructors' championship last year.