BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Hockenheim-Practice

German Grand Prix  -   FREE PRACTICE                    26th July 2002

Weather:  cloudy, 21°C Air, 24° Track

The BMW WilliamsF1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were today
5th and 7th respectively in the first Free Practice sessions for the German
Grand Prix in Hockenheim.

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW24 06 (T-Car FW24 02)
Best time: 1.16,934 min
"For us the practice went according to plan, we were able to test and check
everything we wanted to. I am really enthusiastic about the new circuit. It
is a lot of fun. The area before the hairpin offers a good opportunity for
overtaking. The circuit is one of the best I have ever raced on, my
compliments to the designer."

Juan Pablo Montoya: 7th
Chassis: FW24 05
Best time: 1.17,187 min
"There¹s still some job to do on the balance of my car. We spent the session
learning the track and adjusting it to the new course but still I am not
very comfortable here. During the sessions we concentrated also on tyre
evaluation, which we need to be very careful about.  At the end of the
session I was doing a long run but I had a problem with the visor of my
helmet which wasn¹t sealing perfectly and I had to abort the run and come
back into the pits to have the helmet replaced."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"Today we tried a number of different set-ups and we have been concentrating
mainly on the race. We must make sure we take the right decision about the
tyres as weather conditions are predicted to be hot tomorrow and even hotter
on Sunday this means track conditions will change quite a bit from today.
All in all we are reasonably happy with our job so far and we seem to be
learning this fairly new track quite quickly."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Regarding the engines we had no problems. Today nearly every driver spun at
least once, but if you have such nice and wide run off areas, you can risk a
little bit more. The drivers were just trying to figure out their limits. I
think the new circuit is quite interesting. It still offers some full
throttle sections."

Current pictures are available for download at: www.press.bmw.com