AIMING FOR POLE!

MOTOR RACING'S 'Mr Lucky' is aiming for pole position in more ways than one as his team chief Mario Theissen confidently says the time has come for BMW-Sauber to score its first Formula One victory, writes STAN SZECOWKA.

Recently the battle for glory has been a straight fight between bitter rivals Ferrari and McLaren but all that could change this time round. "We are very confident there will be a battle of more than two teams," Theissen said at the presentation of the team's new car for the upcoming F1 season.

Ferrari and McLaren won every race last season. BMW finished second in the constructors' championship after McLaren was thrown out in the spying scandal.

Theissen said: "It's going to be a very close fight between the top two teams, but I believe that Renault and BMW are capable of closing the gap and of breaking into the top two."

BMW Sauber has retained their 2007 race line-up of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica for the coming season and both the German and the Pole are confident about the season ahead.

"It is generally very difficult to define expectations and make forecasts, but I hope that our plan works out and we are able to win our first race in 2008," said Heidfeld. "I expect us to move forward in all areas - particularly as far as reliability is concerned - and to learn from our mistakes."

Kubica added: "I will also be looking to achieve greater consistency in my results during my second full season in Formula One.

"Retirements and that crash in Canada - which also prevented me from starting in the USA - cost me points in 2007. We all need to take further steps forward in 2008 and make maximum use of every opportunity that presents itself."

"That crash", as Kubica calls it, was one of the most dramatic on-track moments of last season.

Kubica suffered no more than a mild concussion, bruising and a sprained ankle. The BMW-Sauber had gotten tangled up with Jarno Trulli 27 laps in, sending him airborne and into a wall at more than 186 miles per hour.

His car came to rest on its side, with little more than the cockpit left intact. In the tense moments following the crash, listeners heard the chilling "Oh, he's dead" inflection in the Belgian announcer's voice, wrote one F1 commentator, Mike Spinelli.

Kubica said he felt 100 per cent ready to return to Formula One action less than a week after the accident in Montreal.

"I felt like nothing had happened. Canada was very unlucky for me, problems on a Friday, starting with a fuel leak, and from then on not good.

"I am really lucky and I am really positive for myself."

Kubica was thankful to the sport's organising body for its push to improve safety, and admitted he probably would not have survived if the accident had taken place 10 years ago. "We were racing with Jarno at the corner and I was going to the left, and then, as the corner was the left hander, I thought Jarno was going there, so I went right, and he thought I was left so went right," Kubica explained.

"We touched, the front wing went under the car and when I hit the grass, it lifted my car and when I hit the wall it stopped. There is nothing more.

"Reviewing it, I was much more shocked than that in reality. When I stopped I realised I was in good shape, I have been involved in one accident a few years ago in a road car and I knew straightaway something was bad, but this time when I stopped I checked myself, I felt a little bit of ankle pain but that was all."

But it's upwards and onwards for the first Polish driver to compete in Grand Prix racing and his team this year. Just 24 hours after its launch in Munich, BMW Sauber's 2008 car made its test debut in Valencia.

Kubica was charged with taking the F1.08 out for the first time. He was joined at the Spanish track by team mate Heidfeld during the course of the day.

They are particularly looking forward to returning to the kingdom for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix which takes places on April 4, 5 and 6 after last year's notable drive.

In the third world championship round of the season the team equalled its best race result by finishing fourth and sixth.

Among the changes on the new BMW machine are significant revisions to the car's aerodynamics, its rear suspension and its engine packaging.

The first race is in Australia on March 16. Both the German and the Pole are optimistic of making more podium appearances in 2008, perhaps even on the middle step.