BMW Sauber in 2008: Mission Accomplished?

Going into the new 2008 F1 season, BMW Sauber publicly stated that their chief objective was to "win a GP."

Now, merely half way through the season, BMW through the exploits of the very talented Robert Kubica have now achieved that objective.

Yet did they really "win a GP" in the truest sense?

This is the question I wish to ponder in this article.

One line to take here would be to say yes, of course they did.

He completed the 70 odd laps of Montreal in the quickest time, therefore winning the GP. Thus, in literal terms he did indeed win his and BMW’s first GP, and accomplishing the objective.

Yet, if we look at the objective "win a GP" in more detail, would it be fair assume that BMW in setting that objective, were hoping they would have the best overall pace over a whole GP weekend to win a GP?

That is to say, have a better overall weekend package than Ferrari and McLaren.

If one takes this line of thinking further one could suggest that had the Hamilton Raikkonen pit lane incident not have happened, then one of those two would have probably won the GP.

Then, one could argue that although BMW’s achievement should be warmly applauded, they should now go on and aim to win a GP on genuine pace, reliability and dominance, as McLaren did with Hamilton in Australia and Ferrari likewise with Raikkonen in Spain.

One could argue that until BMW win a GP on genuine pace, they haven’t fully reached their goal of winning a GP, or at least to not as fuller extent as they would ideally hope.

Of course, another person opposed to this argument could say that thrills and spills of the kind we saw in Montreal are all part of the fun of F1. Hence the fact that BMW survived such thrills and spills renders them worthy victors and their ultimate mission achieved.

And they certainly wouldn’t be wrong in arguing such a case.

Yet GP’s of a much more orthodox nature are also part of the fun in F1, and in such Grand Prix’s the driver and team with the best overall package deservedly wins the race, and say that BMW should be aiming to win a race of this nature too.

This discussion has added significance in that in various media circles, it has been suggested that now BMW have reached their objective they should effectively give up development on their 2008 car and devote all their efforts on the 2009 challenger, the year in which a whole host of changes will alter the sport quite dramatically.

Proponents of this argument say that due to such dramatic changes being enforced in 2009, BMW could gain a key advantage over Ferrari and McLaren, who will be flat out in the remainder of 2008 to win both championships.

This would be somewhat similar to the advantage McLaren gained when grooved tyres were introduced, and in 1997 McLaren did indeed gain an advantage.

This line of thinking has some flaws however.

The first being the debatable contention made in this article; BMW haven’t as yet reached their objective fully.

In addition, why would BMW wish to take such a stance when they are in such strong positions in both the drivers and constructors championship?

Surely in a sport such as F1 when opportunities present themselves a team must be in the greatest position possible to take advantage of them hear and now!

To surmise then, the main question being asked is, "Have BMW Sauber reached their objective of winning a GP in 2008?"

I believe the answer to this is less straightforward than some may say.

Also, from a fan's perspective it would be great to see the three-team race for the titles develop further.

Yet for it to do so BMW must not only continue demonstrating excellent consistency, but also win GP's by beating Ferrari and McLaren by having the best overall weekend package.