Q & A with BMW's Willy Rampf

Willy Rampf: We expected more from Robert. I thought we would achieve a podium with Robert with the performance we had in qualifying, and we knew the performance between us and McLaren would be very close. Here were are talking about one tenth more or less, and this is also what we saw during the race today.

The race was decided more or less before the first corner, because we lost our position against Hamilton and throughout the race we had the same pace, we even had the same strategy by accident, and we were not close enough to jump him on a pitstop. Our pitstops were a bit quicker than his ones, by about half a second, and with a two second gap you don't make it.

Q. Was the weekend just a tale of qualifying?

WR: Even if you take the first four cars, and you see the quickest race time. It is the same order like the finish. It is that the competition is very close, it is very tight, but this is what we want.

Q. Do you still feel BMW Sauber are in the mix with Ferrari and McLaren?

WR: Yes. Ferrari are still ahead of us and ahead of McLaren, and with McLaren we are very close. In race one they were ahead of us, in race two slightly and in race three we were quicker and in race number four we are equal to McLaren. Now it is between the two teams to see who can make the next bigger step. To fight against Ferrari will be very difficult because they are a few tenths ahead. Two tenths is not enough.

Q. What is the situation with your start systems. Robert has talked about a problem of consistency?

WR: Yes. I think we are on top of it for the next race. If you compare the two starts. Robert had too much wheelspin. His initial start was okay but then he lost. Nick gained two positions because he had a good start, he just managed it. And it was fairly easy to gain position.

Q. So do you need to make any modifications to it?

WR: No. We have to see on the clutch, but the rest is really practicing.

Q. There was some talk in the SWG this week about a possible change to the safety car rules, and the possibility of changing the way the pitlane closed. You lost out on that matter today. What is your feeling on what should be done?

WR: I think in general, if the FIA applies a rule like this there is a reason for it, usually because of an incident that happened in the past. But after four races, there were two races where teams lost out without being able to do anything about it. And I am sure it will be discussed more in detail in the future. For sure the FIA is open to re-discuss it and maybe re-tune the regulations.

Q. Renault have shown a step forward this weekend, and also that they are willing to be quite aggressive on their strategy. Does that make life more difficult?

WR: Not really. From the performance, they made a good step forward from the qualifying performance, it was clear that Alonso was on low fuel. And on race pace we saw that he was not really pulling away after the pitstop to be in the race any more.

Q. Robert appears to be more comfortable in the car at the moment. Has Nick not gelled with the F1.08?

WR: Why, I don't know. If you compare the qualifying, there is a performance difference but it is four races and I am sure that at the end of the season they will be equal in performance. I don't have a concern about this.

Q. What are your prospects for Turkey?

WR: We are looking forward to it because Turkey is a slightly difference downforce level, it is a lower downforce level compared to Barcelona. It is overall a very nice track, a demanding track. We are looking forward to Istanbul.

Q. Any steps planned?

WR: Not big steps. We will continue with our development but it is also a slightly difference downforce level, so just to suit this track you have to develop different parts to Barcelona.