Come full circle: interview with Willy Rampf

Could BMW-Sauber be one of the surprises of the 2006 season? That's just one of the many questions that remain unanswered, as we edge towards what promises to be a fascinating year for the sport.

Others may have new engines, tyre partners and even owners, but there's no doubt that the arrival of BMW as an entrant on its own right is the most significant change to this year's line-up. After six years with Williams, the Munich manufacturer is now in change of its own destiny, and with Sauber, it is building on solid foundations.

The sceptics are expecting BMW to stumble and ultimately regret its less than amicable parting of the ways with Williams and all the know-how that the British team had.

But it would be dangerous to underestimate the strength of the operation that Peter Sauber put together. The team might not have done anything too spectacular over the years, but nor have they stumbled by taking risks, because they could not afford to gamble.

He had some Mercedes and then Ford backing in earlier times, but for the past nine years Peter Sauber was a genuine privateer, paying a large chunk of his budget to Ferrari and running the show in the typically efficient manner of his homeland.

It's hard to see the support of BMW having anything but a positive effect, but whether the team can become a consistent front runner - at a time when the number of truly competitive teams is higher than ever - remains to be seen.

The man in the hot seat is technical director Willy Rampf, who has never worked for any other F1 team but Sauber. By coincidence, the Bavarian spent much of his earlier career with BMW before joining Sauber early in their F1 adventure at the end of 1993 as an engineer. Later, Rampf made a brief return to BMW - running its (successful) two-wheeled Paris-Dakar programme - before he was lured back to Sauber once more.

As the wheel of fortune has turned, the 52-year-old now finds himself a BMW employee for the third time, and thus in the ideal position to help the two parties draw closer together.

It's way too early to draw too many conclusions about the new F1.06, but the white, blue and red machine looked pretty good at its launch earlier this week.

Under Rampf's steady guidance, the existing Sauber design team - with some R&D input from the new owner - appear to have taken a savvy approach to the challenges of Grand Prix racing, 2006 style.

And should the engine produced by Heinz Paschen's boys in Munich returns BMW to the level it was at two or three years ago, the team could have a pretty good package.

Q: In the past you were obviously restricted in terms of resources. Does it feel like Christmas, now that you can basically do what you want?

Willy Rampf: "No, it's not like a Christmas shopping tour! We have to justify the money we spend. It's not just that we buy everything, or do everything that we would like to do. We have to ensure that the money we spend is good for improving the performance of the car. But of course we can do a lot more than before."

Q: Changing engine supplier is always a big story, even without a change of ownership as well. What has that been like after so many years as Ferrari customers?

Rampf: "It's not only changing the engine, it's also changing the electronics of the engine, and the drivetrain with the engine as well. Overall, this was quite a demanding task, and this was the reason why we started with an interim car, where we had the BMW engine and also the electronics that we'll run this year."

Q: How much did you learn from the interim car? For example, Renault only tested the V8 on the dyno before the new car ran...

Rampf: "Overall I'm quite happy that we made the decision to go for an interim car. We modified the chassis to quite a big extent to incorporate the engine, and we learned a lot. All the small issues on the cooling, on the electronics, on the drivetrain, we could sort out a lot of small problems that would otherwise come up now."

Q: All these years, Ferrari have basically delivered an engine in a box and said 'here you are.' Now you can be part of the whole design process, so that must be very different...

Rampf: "It's quite different. BMW is on a very high level with regards to the engine, and they know what they're doing with the engine, no doubt about it. They are on a very high level on the electronic side as well. It's more that we've joined all the efforts together to get the best out of it."

Q: Bearing in mind that BMW tested a V8 in a Williams in July, just after the takeover, were you still able to give them input into what you wanted?

Rampf: "We could give them our input, but as you say the engine and the engine parameters were to a large extent already defined, so we incorporated this in our designs."

Q: You've gone away from the keel concept. Is that all about tidying up the aero at the front?

Rampf: "We started with a different approach at the front end of the car, and we've done away with the single keel that we had last year. So because the front end is quite different, this has an effect on the rest of the car. So yes, aero was the main reason to sort out the front end on this chassis."

Q: All these years people have been chasing downforce, but with the reduced power, the emphasis has moved to efficiency...

Rampf: "Exactly. With the reduced engine power, aerodynamic efficiency is more important than it was in the past, and this applies to everybody to the same degree. So overall everybody is trying to reduce the drag and find downforce with a reduced drag level."

Q: The V8 has allowed you to make the gearbox longer. Is that basically so that it can be narrower and tidier?

Rampf: "With the shorter engine there was the option to keep the rear face of the engine in the same place and move the engine backward. But we decided to move the engine forward and have a longer gearbox, so that we can make a very tight and slim rear end of the car.

"I think overall with the V8, the whole engine environment is smaller than before. So the total car is slimmer than the C24 was. The exhausts require less space, the radiators are much smaller, and so the rear end is much tighter. This has improved the whole back end aerodynamics."

Q: The team have officially confirmed that the fuel tank is smaller, which is an unusual admission to make...

Rampf: "True, but you don't know what the fuel level was! Overall the idea is to make everything quite small."

Q: But didn't you reveal your 2005 tank size to the opposition when Felipe Massa one-stopped in Melbourne last year?

Rampf: "No... We never filled the car up last year!"

Q: Last year's car was originally designed to run on Bridgestone tyres, so you were to some degree compromised when you switched to Michelin. You've now changed the rear suspension to compensate. How much of a benefit will that be?

Rampf: "The rear kinematics are based on the requirements of the Michelin tyres. We have enough experience now with Michelin to know that this is an overall step forward. So it's a better car mechanically, but in those terms we don't know yet how much exactly it brings.

"But there's no doubt that we can improve the lap time just with this rear end. From the drivers' comments [on the C24B], we know that the car is easier to drive, easier to handle. Overall, that gives more scope for the car set-up."

Q: Toyota will have a completely new bodywork package by Bahrain. How different will this car be by then?

Rampf: "I think we will have continuous development until Bahrain, but we will not turn up with completely different bodywork."

Q: What's going to be the key issue in aero this year?

Rampf: "With the reduced engine performance, where drag is very important, one of the issues will be the development of rear wings. You won't have a new wing for each race, but maybe for a lot of different races. Whereas in the past we had high, medium and low downforce, in the future we'll have more levels. It's something we'll concentrate on."

Q: Until now you've not been able to fully exploit the wind tunnel. What's the timescale for moving to three shifts and 24-hour use?

Rampf: "The plan is to go to three shifts as soon as possible, but we have to recruit more people, which means that it will be at the end of 2006 at the earliest."

Q: How difficult is it to make that step up? You'll have more data to make sense of and so on...

Rampf: "We have an exact plan on how to move forward with our tunnel in terms of recruitment of aerodynamicists, model designers, and people in the model shop. But we have to be careful in increasing the head count. Just increasing it doesn't really help. They all have to be integrated. We have hired [former BAR senior aerodynamicist] Willem Toet for his experience."

Q: What's the biggest challenge going to be this year?

Rampf: "I think the biggest challenge is that the target is very ambitious, and at the same time we are increasing the head count in our team. So we have to integrate a lot of people."

Q: What is that target?

Rampf: "The target is to have a very competitive car. You have to ask [BMW motorsport director] Mario [Theissen] for a more specific one! In this testing period, generally it's very difficulty to say where you are, so I think we have to wait for Bahrain."

Q: Next year's gearbox is going to be done in Munich. Does that make life easier for you, in that you can focus on other areas?

Rampf: "Munich has very good facilities for gearbox development, with test rigs and so on. That's the reason why it will be designed there. But it's still an integrated part of the overall car package, so it's not that we get their gearbox and have to fit it to the car. I wouldn't call it a joint venture, but it's developed in a close relationship between Munich and Hinwil."

Q: Apart from the gearbox, what else will be done differently for next year's car?

Rampf: "On the electronic side, there will be more and more development done in Munich."

Q: Obviously people are asking whether BMW want to employ an Adrian Newey or whatever. Are there plans to get a 'name' to work alongside you?

Rampf: "We're not discussing this issue in public..."

Q: With the various rule changes, what do you think the racing will be like this year?

Rampf: "I think the biggest difference will be the new qualifying format, and tyre changes during the race. Everybody has to focus on a different tyre development programme, and concentrate more on qualifying and less on long run performance. So I think this is the biggest change for the entire race weekend."

Q: Teams are going to have to react very quickly during qualifying...

Rampf: "I think this is great. Spectators will like it, and for the technicians it will be quite a stressful afternoon. I think everyone will enjoy this competition."

Q: How worrying was the tyre situation last year? For example, Felipe Massa had a failure at the Nurburgring...

Rampf: "I think this happened to all the teams at least once. You didn't know exactly what the condition of the tyres was. Now, with tyre changes allowed, this means a completely new approach to the races compared to last year, and overall, I like it.

"For Michelin it would be better to have a very long stint, but for the race, for the spectators, it's much nicer to have changes again."

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