FW: BMW WilliamsF1 Team - French GP - Practice

French Grand Prix  -   FREE PRACTICE                    19th July 2002

Weather:  dry and sunny, 24°C Air

Despite the odd spin on the smooth asphalt surface of the Magny-Cours
circuit, the BMW
WilliamsF1 Team had a trouble free start to the French GP weekend. In the
first Free
Practice session Ralf Schumacher drove 37 laps achieving claiming the 5th
quickest time
while team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya clocked 36 laps ending in 10th position.

Ralf Schumacher:                  5th
Chassis: FW24 06 (T-Car FW24 02)
Best time: 1.14,970 min
"Today everything went according to plan and we completed the scheduled
work, trying out
a few things. At present we are still not sure about our tyre choice. All
in all the car is not
so bad but there’s still some work ahead of us."

Juan Pablo Montoya:               10th
Chassis: FW24 05
Best time: 1.15,271 min
"It’s been quite a difficult day. At present I am still struggling with the
balance of my car a
little almost everywhere on the track. Due to the quite slippery nature of
this circuit I spun
and went off into the gravel during the afternoon session, which caused me
to lose some
track time. We are now concentrating on the job of improving the car for
qualifying."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"Today we spent the time going through the two different compounds Michelin
has brought
for us here as well as checking some cooling options on the new bodywork to
make sure it
is right for Sunday. As usual for a Friday we did quite a lot of set-up
changes on the car.
We know we have quite a lot of work ahead of us in order to get ready for
tomorrow’s
qualifying session."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Both the drivers completed their programme today. Compared with the Grands
Prix we
have competed in so far this season, this location has quite high
temperatures. Michelin
measured a track temperature of 44°C today. Everything went according to
plan with
regard to engines."