Theissen: BMW can be fast all season

The speed of the BMW F1.07 has been one of the revelations of the pre-season period, with the team expected to be among Ferrari and McLaren's closest challengers in Melbourne.

But speaking in an interview in this week's autosport.com journal, Theissen insisted that BMW would not fall back as more established teams got into their stride.

"For sure, we do not only have a programme to perform especially during the first couple of races," he said.

"Quite to the contrary, actually. We concentrate on keeping a constantly high rhythm of development ­ as we did last year when we achieved the goal not only to keep the pace of the top teams but to actually close the gap.

"That is also the aim for this year. That means I fully expect that we will not fall back during the running of the season.

"We will continue to develop aggressively."

Theissen agreed that BMW were beginning 2007 in a very strong position, but admitted that the team still had to overcome some reliability problems.

"My judgement is that we have been encouragingly quick right from the start," he said.

"The drivers speak about a true step forward regarding the performance.

"But success consists of two factors: you have to be quick, but you also have to be reliable.

"There were a couple of issues we had to address in the last weeks and they will go on to keep us busy right up to the race in Melbourne."