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Formula One: Austrian GP qualifying: BMW WilliamsF1

16 July 2000

Weather: Overcast. Average air temperature 14°C. Av. track
temperature 17°C.

Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher will start from 18th and 19th
positions respectively for the 2000 Austrian Grand Prix. A problem
occurred on Jenson's car at the end of qualifying forcing him to finish
his session with the T-car.

Jenson Button 
    Position: 
    18th
Chassis:
         FW22 04 
    T-car:
              FW22 03
     Fastest Lap:
         1.12.337
"It's going to be a tough race tomorrow, starting from such a poor grid
position. It's really annoying because on my second run I was quite
well up although I made a mistake in the last two corners. Then we
waited until the end to go out, and I think we should not. In fact we
had several problems. My car had an engine problem so for my last
timed lap -- with one minute to go -- I had to jump into the T-car,
which wasn't set up for me and had a completely different set up. This
meant that I wasn't able to get a time out of it. "

Ralf Schumacher 
    Position: 
    19th 
Chassis
         FW22 02
Fastest Lap:
         1:12.347
          
"18th and 19th positions are obviously not what we expected. We
have been slow the whole weekend, due to a lack of grip. We have
tried many things but we couldn't set up the car in the best way for
this track. Circuits with low-grip seem to be generally a problem to us,
as we have seen in Monaco and Montreal." 
 
Patrick Head (Technical Director)
"We've had a very poor qualifying and it's going to make the race very
difficult for both the drivers. We quite clearly haven't got the car well
set up for this track and haven't been able to make good use of our
recent testing. We have a lot of thinking to do but we are going to do
our best to have a reliable race tomorrow and do better in the future."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"Today wasn't our day. Here on the A1-Ring we have been struggling
with grip problems since our first free practice session. Jenson had to
switch to the T-car as the engine in his race-car didn't run properly as
he drove out of the garage for his third run. At least, until that moment
we hadn't experienced any technical reliability problems."