BMW Sauber expects a 'significant' improvement in its pace when it introduces a swathe of upgrades for the Spanish Grand Prix, but with so many of its rivals doing likewise, the team is unsure whether its development efforts will pay off.
Technical director Willy Rampf explained that major aerodynamic changes were on the cards as last year's third-best team tried to get out of its current lower midfield position.
"The nose section, more deeply undercut sidepods and the rear wing are all totally new," he said.
"Added to which, modifications have also been made to the front wing, engine cover and underbody. We expect these improvements to significantly reduce our lap times.
"Of course, we know that the other teams will also have made modifications to their cars for Barcelona.
"However, we expect to be able to close the gap to our rivals.
"We won't find this out for certain, though, until the race weekend.
"Up to then we will only have the results from the wind tunnel and simulations to go on and, of course, can no longer test in advance on the track."
Team boss Mario Theissen admitted that BMW's very poor start to 2009 had been tough to take.
"We cannot be satisfied at all with the first four races of the season," he said.
"After our positive winter testing, all of us at the BMW Sauber F1 team envisaged a rather different start to the season.
"The car is not fast enough and we have recorded only one podium finish.
"We are approaching this challenge in a positive way and are working intensively in Munich and Hinwil to get back to our old form.
"We will be lining up in Barcelona with an extensive aerodynamics-focused development package, and are already working on further upgrades to be introduced later on in the season."
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