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Formula One: BMW F1 Imola Qualifying Notes

9 April 2000

San Marino Grand Prix - QUALIFYING
    8th April 2000

Weather:  Sunny and warm. Average temperature 25 C.

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button will start from 5th and 18th
positions respectively for the 2000 San Marino Grand Prix.  Ralf today
achieved his best qualifying position so far this season after
experiencing a throttle control problem at the end of the morning
session, which forced the team to change his car's engine. Jenson
also struggled with some hydraulic problems during the free practice
session which again prevented him from completing many laps in
order to gain enough experience on the demanding Imola track.

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis:  FW22 03
Best Time:
         1:24:805
         Best Position:
         5th
    
"The Williams-BMW was really perfect, we have a very good car and
also BMW have improved in the right way. I must say that we didn't
expect the fifth position in qualifying. I am quite optimistic for
tomorrow's race because usually the FW22 has performed better in
the race than in qualifying trim."

Jenson Button
Chassis:  FW22 04
Best Time:
         1:27.135
         Best Position:
         18th

"Not really a good qualifying for me today. Both yesterday and today I
have found it very difficult to get familiar with using the kerbs and I
must say that I am still not really confident. This circuit is straight,
narrow and very bumpy, which means that it's very different from
every other track on which I have driven in a F1 car so far. My lack of
mileage due to problems that we had with my car didn't help,
obviously."

Patrick Head (WilliamsF1 Technical Director)
"We are very pleased with Ralf's performance after a difficult morning.
Unfortunately we had some sort of failure I couldn't really comment
exactly on what went wrong in his last run, whether it was engine or
gearbox or something in that area. So Ralf was unable to get the
opportunity to see if he could improve. For Jenson it has been a
rather difficult race weekend altogether and although I thought that his
first run looked quite strong relative to the lack of mileage he'd had
this morning we failed to get a good enough improvement on it so
he's quite a long way back. Anyway it's a long race tomorrow and now
we will be concentrating on that."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We are very happy, as newcomers, to start our third race from the
third row on the grid. Such a good qualifying lap can come true only
when everything works at its best: WilliamsF1 has prepared a very
well set up car, we are working hard on the improvement of our
engine and Ralf  made all this work perfectly. Jenson hasn't still found
the right rhythm here. Imola is a very difficult circuit to learn. To find
the right braking points on this track you need a lot of experience.
After having run a race distance, I am sure Jenson will feel more at
home here. During the free practice we experienced some problems,
which means that reliability is still the main target once again in the
race."