BMW WilliamsF1 Team-French GP-Race

French Grand Prix - RACE
21st July 2002

Weather: sunny and dry, 25°C Air

After a great performance in Saturday¹s qualifying, the BMW WilliamsF1 team
could not race as competitively as expected. Juan Pablo Montoya, who was
starting from pole, achieved a fourth position for the 2002 French Grand
Prix in Magny-Cours. Ralf Schumacher finished fifth and congratulated his
brother for a 5th World Championship.

Juan Pablo Montoya:       4th
Chassis: FW24 05
Fastest Lap: 1:15,697 on lap 26 (5th overall)
"Again I could not take advantage of my pole position. In the race I have
been struggling a lot with the balance of my car, which was very difficult
to drive. Our tyre choice was good in yesterday¹s hotter conditions but
didn¹t pay off today, in cooler conditions. As the race went on, we were
loosing grip more and more. With regards to Michael having won the
Championship I think it¹s great for him. He did the best job in the paddock,
has the best car and knows how to use it. Anyway, last year I finished sixth
in the drivers Championship but I am second at present, so my target now is
to secure my position."

Ralf Schumacher:             5th
Chassis:  FW24 06
Fastest Lap: 1:15,584 lap 24 (4thoverall)
"We knew we would have a high tyre consumption due to our car¹s
characteristics and therefore we went for the hard tyre choice that Michelin
offered us. In the end this proved to be a disadvantage. It wasn¹t as warm
as we hoped. On my last lap I knew from the team that my brother had become
World Champion. Congratulations to Michael, as he really deserves this
Title."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"This was obviously a disappointing race day for us as it has shown we were
simply not competitive enough. Our tyre choice looks like s mistake and our
performance in race trim is not enough. The strategy on both cars was to
defend as much as possible, but this was clearly again not enough."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):
"We didn¹t have any technical problems. We scored points with both cars,
which is satisfying. But when you start from pole, you obviously hope for a
podium position. We know that we need to raise our race performance up to
our qualifying level. We have to continue working hard because McLaren has
made a big step forward. The fight for second place in the Constructors
Championship is going to be exciting. This is good news, at least for the
viewers. Ferrari has proved once again to be the paragon in F1, being a team
with great performances and with a Michael Schumacher, who once again was in
the right place at the right time. All we can say is congratulations!"