By Phil Huff
January 16 2007

BMW-Sauber's new challenger, the F1.07, has made its track debut in Valencia at the hands of Nick Heidfeld, in front of a team from BMWF1Talk.com. "We have channelled our experience with the F1.06 into the new car, but at the same time focused on the new challenges presented by the 2007 regulations," explained Willy Rampf, Technical Director at the team. "It's clear that the cars are going to slide around more," he continued. "It was therefore important for us to build a car that is easy to drive and that our drivers can trust sufficiently to go on the attack. We should also expect the cars to run with rather greater downforce as a rule, in order to make up for the loss of grip."

The new car, pictured below for the first time, brings together the strengths of Sauber and the resources of BMW for the first time, producing a car that Mario Thiessen, the team boss, expects to be visiting the podium on merit throughout the year.









More pictures will follow shortly - there's currently in excess of 800 on the memory card to work through!