The Bahrain International Circuit was very dirty and slippery early on Tuesday morning as teams began their final their day session and for the BMW Sauber F1 team, both drivers on duty, Robert Kubica and Sebastien Vettel, started their program under these conditions, making it a somewhat slow start to the day.

Robert did some set-up work in the morning session and after lunch concentrated on long run simulations with different mechanical set-ups, with positive results, however he is fully aware that more work is needed before they arrive in Melbourne.

“There  are  still  some  problems  that  are  annoying  us  so  we  have  to  find  some  compromise between reliability and performance before the start of the season at Melbourne as there is not anymore  testing  after  this  one,” Robert said. “We came here because the weather is good and this test is crucial to us but unfortunately the problems are still there, we have had these problems a long time so the first lot of Grand Prix’s for us will be  difficult.  I feel much better this season as I’m suited to the car now and the team so much self confidence is much stronger.”

Meanwhile, Sebastian was forced to spend a lot of time in the garage due to a gearbox change in the morning, and a power steering change and problems on the hydraulic system in the afternoon.  

For the two remaining days of pre-season testing, Robert and teammate Nick Heidfeld will share driving duties. The program for Wednesday is aero tests and testing of new mechanical parts for Robert. Nick’s to do list is set-up work, aero and tyre tests.