For the first time this year, Dr Mario Theissen has suggested that BMW-Sauber will retain an unchanged driver line-up in
Formula 1 in 2009 – seeming to quell speculation about
Nick Heidfeld's future at the squad.
The experienced German has endured a trying start to the 2008 campaign, struggling to heat up his tyres sufficiently quickly in qualifying and consequently leaving him on the back foot come the races, an issue that prior to the British Grand Prix had seen him out-qualified by team-mate
Robert Kubica eight-nil – twice indeed failing to make the top ten Q3 shoot-out at all – and out-scored 48 points to just 26.
Claiming to have made a breakthrough in the run-up to
Silverstone, however, Heidfeld went on to out-pace Kubica in qualifying for the first time this year, earning himself fifth spot on the grid around the Northants circuit. Even more encouragingly still, his race performance – when he twice pulled off double overtaking moves on a charge that took him to the second step of the rostrum, his third podium finish of the season to-date – seemed to back that assertion up, and has instilled the under-pressure 31-year-old with a new lease of life as he approaches his home event at Hockenheim this weekend.
Both Kubica and Heidfeld are understood to be under contract with
BMW for 2009. There have previously been suggestions that the Munich and Hinwil-based concern is interested in securing the services of disenchanted
Renault incumbent
Fernando Alonso, or possibly even GP2 Series front-runner Bruno Senna – seemingly in place of Heidfeld – but Theissen has sought to play down any such talk.
“A team that wants to play a role in the world championship needs two strong drivers,” the Bavarian manufacturer's motorsport director asserted in an interview with German magazine
Auto Motor und Sport. “However, even the best driver is not a robot. He can only deliver maximum results if the equipment, the environment and everything else is right.
