Spanish GP - Race
Weather: Sunny, dry, air 23-24°C, track 26-32°C
Barcelona (ESP). A reasonable conclusion to a difficult weekend for the BMW
WilliamsF1 Team, which collected nine valuable points today in the Spanish
Grand Prix. This result was achieved thanks to Juan Pablo Montoya's fourth
position after he qualified ninth and Ralf Schumacher's fifth place, having
started 7th on the grid.
Juan Pablo Montoya: 4th
Chassis: FW25 04 (Spare car)
Best time: 1.21.448 min (lap 21, 7th)
The car was quite difficult to drive initially and I decided just to pace
myself in order to get to the end of the race and get some good points from
this race. We had balanced the car in a different way than usual and it was
therefore more difficult to drive but towards the end of the race when there
was more grip on the track the tyres worked much better and the car felt pretty
good. It was good fun today, I enjoyed the racing and I am glad we could
collect some good points.
Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW25 05
Best time: 1.20,798 min (lap 8, 4th)
After all the testing we did on this track, we thought we could achieve a
better result. But after the struggle that we went through this weekend, we are
reasonably happy with fourth and fifth positions. When I went off the circuit a
part of my bodywork got ripped, which caused my car to oversteer quite a lot.
In the last 16 laps I had a hard but fair fight with Cristiano da Matta. All in
all this weekend showed that we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
It is good for the constructors' championship to get points with both cars. We
had no problems regarding reliability and the pit stops were also very good. It
was a difficult race in terms of managing the strategy. After the safety car
had come out for three laps right after the start, we changed our pit strategy
from three to two stops. The decision to change the strategy was a close call,
particularly with Ralf and he may have done better on a three stop. He had
difficulties with his car towards the end of the race due to some damage to
the floor and bodywork after he slid into the gravel and lost a lot of
downforce. Juan did a good steady job to come home fourth.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
After we struggled in the Free Practice and Qualifying, fourth and fifth
positions for us are a positive result, even if we were only able to keep pace
with the leaders in the first part of the race. Juan Pablo drove a trouble fee
race whereas Ralf had severe oversteer in the last part of the race. He drove
his last 16 laps under immensely strong pressure from Da Matta's Toyota and he
successfully defended his fifth position. When Ralf went off into the gravel,
the engine air cooling was damaged making the last few laps a very difficult
test for the water and oil temperatures which the BMW P83 clearly passed.
Le Castellet Test: 6-9 May, Marc Gené (6-7) and Ralf Schumacher (8-9)
