Title remains BMW's goal for 2009

The team were clearly the third quickest outfit in the early part of the year, fighting closely behind Ferrari and McLaren, a performance that culminated in their first victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, scored by Robert Kubica.

However, as the season progressed, BMW seemed unable to match the development rate of their main rivals and looked to have dropped at least behind Renault by the end of the year.

Theissen insists, however, that their goals remain unchanged and that they will be aiming to win the title in 2009.

"Formula One is set to experience the most significant rule changes in its history," said Theissen. "Wide-reaching controls on aerodynamics systems will see the cars looking totally different in 2009, treadless tyres (slicks) will be brought back and the totally new KERS technology introduced.

"This may bring about shifts in the balance of power. This extremely challenging scenario does not alter our goal of fighting for the world championship title in 2009."

Theissen admits he was proud of the team's performance during the season and he reckons the speed of their development was not a problem.

"We are proud of our successful season and we have once again achieved our exacting goals," he added. "We set out to turn the two-horse race at the top of the standings into a three-way battle and to record our first victory. We reached this target much earlier than expected and even managed to do so with a one-two finish

"These magnificent achievements so early in the season naturally whetted the appetite for more. Although it didn't take us long to reach our goals, there was no let-up from anybody in the team.

"We continued to bring new and further stages of technical developments into the car in the second half of the season, but unfortunately they didn't produce the performance gains we expected.

"Our pace of development was fine, but the results were not up to scratch and our rivals opened up a gap over us during the course of the season. We will learn from this for 2009, when we will be looking to be up there battling for the title."

Kubica, meanwhile, said the season had been very hard for him, despite staying in the championship fight until the penultimate round.

"The 2008 season was very long and extremely hard - probably the toughest of my career," the Pole said. "Unfortunately, we didn't manage to sustain our pace of development through the second half of the season. But we have made a big leap forward over 2007.

"We had no technical retirements and were in there fighting for the title almost until the end of the season. The team have done a wonderful job and we can be proud of our season, I don't like to give myself too much praise, but I think I drove really well.

"I was almost always fast and able to show my potential. However, I'm a person who always wants to win and for me second place is the first loser."