Did BMW screwed up big time last year?

[alvaro3d]

After Canada Robert Kubica's BMW pace fall to the midfield, Thiessen said that it was because they were preparing 09 car, but now that the difusser-gate is clear we have Kubica saying that the BMW is not a frontrunner and that the difusser ain't going to help to much, because there are another problems.

I think that last year they should kept full resources to Kubica, and they would probably won the championship like Raikonen did in 2007 coming between the Alonso-Hamilton fight, with kimi worried about coke and icecreams since mid-08, BMW throwed away a big chance.

What is 09 waiting for BMW? reliability problems? or strong performance starting this weekend with a 1-2 like Canada 08?

If I were Kubica and BMW 09 does not deliver I would seek a seat somehwere else, but where?
Ferrari is a mess,
McLaren without Ron Dennis it seems to be falling apart
Brawn GP don't think that they sack Barrichello or Button for a couple of years?
Toyota, both drivers are looking strong
Williams maybe Nakajima but is Williams a good car for the Pole? only delivers on free practice
Red Bull doesn't feels like a step forward

Lets hope the 09 BMW delivers better results soon, altough he screwed up BIG TIME in Melbourne and in Malaysia he didn't even get to the first corner because of reliability.

[Yannick]

Having been a Sauber supporter since they started out in F1, I was very happy about their successes of last year. Still, in the 2nd half of the season, it was clearly showing that they couldn't keep up with the development pace of McLaren and Ferrari.
Anyhow, regarding their track record, they did extremely well last year. I have to admit that Heidfeld was somewhat hit and miss, though providing the two best overtaking moves in a single race that the series has seen that season at Silverstone.
Their new car with its lawnmower aesthetic that's down to the new regulations doesn't exactly seem to be a winner just yet. It was great to see Robert catching up on Vettel in Melbourne, but the avoidable accident was ouch.
Anyway, I hope they will still be a contender for 4th in the constructors or better.

[Ross Prawn]

I think that they made a perfectly understandable judgement that they didn't really have the resources to win the championship in 2008, and that it would be better to go for 2009. A difficult but probably realistic choice. Remember that Kubica only got to lead the championship because Lewis did a Max on Kimi.

Unfortunately, the 2009 car doesn't look to be an outright winner either, so they may be a bit embarrassed by the end of the year.

Kubica was by far the most impressive driver last year, so I wouldn't be surprised if he jumps ship if BMW don't make progress soon.

[tristan1117]

Well, granted the team had made a large improvement over 2007, getting their first win and coming a pretty respectable 3rd and best-of-the-rest honors in the Constructors Championship. I was rooting for Kubica and he still is one of the best younger talents in F1 along with Vettel, but through the long haul he just couldn't keep up with Hamilton and Massa. I think it was the right decision because they really fell off a bit at the end of the season. I think Kubica's run for the championship is like Heinz-Harald-Frentzen's 99 championship campaign, he could have won, but it just wasn't enough to beat Mclaren and Ferrari. As for there 09 hopes, maybe they can lead the diffuser-less teams and come 4th or 5th.

[nit]

Red Bull doesn't feels like a step forward

Red Bull are 3/4 fastest cars on the track, if it wasn't for brawn and Toyota they would be the fastest cars on the grid. I don't BMW messed up last year, they set themselves goals to get and they obtain them by canada and didn't bother to push forward for the world title which i can understand IF this year car was any good. The fact that this year car is a bad car for what they wanted show they made huge mistakes last year in the research and development when getting this new car ready, in a time when they could there wind tunnel to 100%.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Being a BMW Sauber fan since they started in '06 I was very disappointed with their decision to focus on Hiedfeld's Qualifying issues and the '09 car in the 2nd half of '08. But it seems to be the right decision because had they tried to win the championship in '08 they would have most probably been worse off than McLaren and Ferriar.