By BMW Sauber F1 Team
November 18 2006

Since the Brazilian GP, the first Formula One season of the BMWSauberF1Team is history. We review the debut year of the team and summarize the 18 races of the 2006 Formula One season once more. Today: How everything began in Bahrain...

At the start to the season in Bahrain, the newly formed BMW Sauber F1 Team looked back on a hard winter: An intermediate car to incorporate the BMW P86 V8 engine had been created, sponsor contracts signed and an extensive testing programme conducted, before the BMW Sauber F1.06 was presented in Valencia on 17th January 2006.

Following promising training performances and the first qualifying in the new and exciting three-part format, the first race of the season, however, did not go as planned. While Nick Heidfeld and his team mate Jacques Villeneuve managed to progress to the second part of the qualifying session and entered the desert race form grid positions ten and eleven, neither Nick nor Jacques were able to cross the finish line in the points

Following a race incident in the first corner, Nick finished round one in 19th place and managed to improve to 12th position in the end. Jacques was forced to retire prematurely in ninth position after half of the race. The reason was an engine failure due to a defect in the crank assembly.