---

FORMULA ONE: German GP free practice: BMW Williams F1

29 July 2000

German Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE
28th July 2000

Weather:  First rainy, then sunny.
Air temperature 19° C average. Track temperature 21° C average.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jenson
Button were 14th and 16th respectively in the first free practice
sessions for the German Grand Prix. Ralf lost almost half of the
second one-hour session as his engine was changed as a
precautionary measure.

Ralf Schumacher
Chassis:
         FW22 02
T-Car Chassis:
    FW22 03
Best Time:
         1:45.542 
         Position:
    14th   
"The set-up of the car is pretty good but there's still quite a lot of room
for improvement. The engine change -- which we decided to make
between the two sessions -- didn't help, as I lost 25 minutes of track
time."

Jenson Button
Chassis:
         FW22 04
Best Time:
         1:45.791
         Position:
    16th    
"I think we have learned something today, both in the dry and in the
wet, which was very useful. I think that our position doesn't really
reflect how fast we are. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some more laps
in the dry and learn the circuit a bit more. You reach very high speeds
on this track, but you don't realise how fast you are until you brake
and you actually feel the G-force. The braking distance, then, is
obviously a lot longer here than on most of the other tracks."

Patrick Head (Technical Director, WilliamsF1)
"We had a day working on race set-up and evaluating brake wear and
tomorrow will be concentrating more on grid positions. The rain
added an interesting interruption to our programme."

Dr Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"After the first free practice hour we found a minor leak in a cylinder
head cover and we decided to change the engine as a precaution."