British GP free practice - BMW WilliamsF1 Team

British Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE 13th July 2001

Weather: Rain for the final ten minutes. Air temperature 17°C average. Track 
temperature 19°C average.

It was a trouble-free start to the British Grand Prix weekend for the BMW 
WilliamsF1 Team with Ralf Schumacher 8th and Juan Pablo Montoya 17th.

Ralf Schumacher 
Position: 8th 
Chassis: FW23 05
T-Car: FW23 02
Best Time: 1:24.222
"As we already knew from the test, Silverstone is a difficult track for us. 
We have a lack of grip and it is just that the combination of tyres and 
chassis that are not as compatible as at other circuits, but we will work 
hard to improve for tomorrow. Apart from that we had no technical problems."

Juan Pablo Montoya 
Position: 17th
Chassis: FW23 06
Best Time: 1:25.267
"It was a pretty good day though we struggled in the morning a lot with the 
set-up. PM was pretty good, though we put the new tyres on a bit late and it 
started to drizzle so we couldn't really get a lap on them. I think for the 
race we should be quite competitive. I don't think it is a weekend when we 
are looking to win, but we seem to surprise ourselves sometimes on Saturdays. 
We will see. Let's hope it stays dry as with the wet weather it is going to 
make life a bit more difficult and it may be a bit of a lottery for the race."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"Certainly we didn't start the practice that strongly but progressively we 
have improved the car and some useful homework has been done for the race. We 
have tried both of the Michelin tyres. The weather is probably going to make 
the tyre choice quite tricky, but we will now concentrate on setting up the 
car for good grid positions tomorrow afternoon."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We knew before this circuit wasn't going to be easy for us as it doesn't 
suit our package that well. However, we are working on the balance of the 
cars so we get a good result. The positive point is we had a one hundred per 
cent trouble-free Friday and Juan Pablo's time is not showing his true 
potential. When he was out on new tyres the rain started."

Current high-resolution photographs may be downloaded from the BMW Press Club 
at www.press.bmwgroup.com (registration at any time)

Media contact:

WilliamsF1
Ann Bradshaw
ann.bradshaw@williamsf1.com
Tel: +44 79 772 75 838

BMW
Guido Stalmann
Tel: +49(0) 170 5666 112
guido.stalmann@bmw.de

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945