BMW WilliamsF1 Team-U.S.G.P.-Race- BMW Viewpoint

US Grand Prix - RACE                                                   29th
September 2002

Weather: dry, sunny, 26°C Air, 34°C Track

Today at the 2002 US Grand Prix in Indianapolis the BMW WilliamsF1 Team
secured  second place in the Constructors¹ Championship. Juan Pablo Montoya
came fourth in spite of a collision with team-mate Ralf Schumacher who was
forced to do a long pit stop to repair his car and ended up 16th in the
race.

Juan Pablo Montoya:       4th
Chassis: FW24 04
Fastest Lap: 1:12,798 on lap 72 (3rd overall)
"At the end of the day I think I had a good race but the outcome is very
disappointing. In the second lap I was passing Ralf and I braked late. I was
going round the outside and suddenly he hit me. I think he braked a lot
later. Then I made a mistake in the pit stop as I pitted much too early. I
saw a sign out and I thought I had to come in and the crew didn¹t know I was
coming. Unluckily, it wasn¹t the time to come in yet."

Ralf Schumacher:            16th
Chassis:  FW24 06
Fastest Lap: 1:13,260 on lap 71 (4th overall)
"I had a good start but after that there was the unfortunate accident with
Juan. It is always difficult to pass anyone on the outside. There wasn¹t a
lot of room there at all. Anyway, before giving an accurate opinion I should
have a proper look at the TV images first. Most important is that such
things should not happen between team-mates no matter who¹s responsible. It
was very annoying that I had been pushed so far back, as my car today was
really good."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"It was a good day for the Championship as we have secured second place now
and it is good that we have had both cars finish the race here for the first
time. Apart from this we have had quite a lot of incidents in this race.
Ralf and Juan came together in the first corner of lap two and Ralf lost his
rear wing. The pit crew did a fantastic job to change that quickly. After
this Juan was looking strong for the fuel level he had on board. Then he got
confused when he thought he was signalled into the pits which was not the
case. Therefore he pitted too early and could not take full advantage of the
car¹s performance and the strategy."

Mario Theissen  (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Indianapolis is the circuit with the longest full throttle section of all
the F1 tracks and it is very demanding on the engine. Therefore, at its race
debut, it is very positive that the new development of our engine behaved
well right here. Both cars finished the race with no engine problems. In the
last part of the race Juan Pablo was very quick but not quick enough to
achieve a place on the podium as we would have needed some more laps for
that. Anyway, we have achieved second place in the Constructors¹
Championship on the third year after BMW¹s comeback to F1. This is a big
success for the whole team."

Barcelona test: 2-5 October, Marc Gené and Antonio Pizzonia all days
Current pictures for downloading at www.press.bmw.com