Lauda: BMW will be stronger in 2009

BMW Sauber started the season as a serious threat to McLaren and Ferrari, and even led the constructors' championship after the first round of flyaway races.

However, the team were unable to match the development rate of their rivals and slipped away over the course of the season.

Lauda sees no cause for concern, however, and thinks the promise shown in the early stages of the 2008 campaign bode well for the future.

"BMW Sauber had a very strong package at some races, and were able to translate the performance and reliability of the car (combined with their drivers' skills) into results on the racetrack," Lauda told the official Formula One website.

"But you could also see that they were unable to do this on tracks where their car showed a weakness in pace. Overall, though, you can see that they are on the right path in their development, and they can probably be as strong, or even stronger next season.

"I do not think that they had a problem with their sudden success, as the team has a very high grade of experienced personnel and they should easily be able to cope with success."

Lauda believes that the team with the most pressure on their shoulders next year are Williams, who had a disappointing time this season despite taking two podium finishes.

"They must have gone down a wrong road in the development phase of their car, which they where not able to correct during the season," explained Lauda looking at their season.

"They have very experienced people that have proved their winning ability in the past and the team's facilities are state of the art. For them it is now very important not to suffer from the same mistakes next season.

"They have taken the decision to run a combination of young, promising drivers, over a more experienced line-up, so there was a relatively high risk that driver mistakes could also affect their results at the end of the season - and this is what happened."