WilliamsF1 aiming to maintain second

By Andrew Hooper
August 15 2002

 

 

 
WilliamsF1 aiming to maintain second
 
With the 2002 season drawing to a close and both the Drivers and constructors titles all but wrapped up by Ferrari the BMW WilliamsF1 team is aiming to maintain their second place in the constructors title. With Michael Schumacher securing the drivers title both WilliamsF1 drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, are still in a position to challenge for second in the drivers championship so there is also this to fight for as the season closes.

Ralf SchumacherBoth Ralf and Juan Pablo were questioned as to what their expectations were for the rest of the season. Both drivers made it clear that they wanted to finish the season off in the best possible position.

Ralf said: "I think for us, as a team, in the first place, is to maintain second in the Constructors for next year and then, obviously as well, to take what is left. If it possible to come second, I would appreciate it. I will just see how the end of the season goes."

Juan Pablo added: "Being my second season of course you want to do the best you can every season and you want to do it better than the previous season. Second would be a really good step forward, even third is good as well. But as Ralf said, you always want to try to do the best you can. It's very simple."

Even though the drivers title had been won and the constructors title close to been settled neither WilliamsF1 driver considers the season over. Both are of the view that there is still much to be achieved in the final races.

Ralf said: "Well, certainly the Championship is gone but for us, as well, our target is really to close up the gap to Ferrari. If we want to compete in the Championship, or would like to be anywhere near the Championship next year we have to close up the gap and we don't have a lot of time to do so, so it's going to be very tough and exciting for us."

Juan Pablo MontoyaAs for their feelings on this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix Juan Pablo was confident that he and the team could find a solution to the problems that had seen his performance in 2001 turn out to be very poor.

Juan Pablo said: " Last year was really bad. We never really got the car right and I didn't put it together at all. Hopefully this year it will change. It seems this year, the circuits where everything went really wrong (last year), this year has been really good. Hopefully it keeps going that way. I think last year I seemed to have a lot of understeer all weekend long and I think this year we can fix it. I understand the car a bit more and I'm working better with the engineers so that should be a plus. It's not a place I love to drive around but we will make the best out of it."

He further added that pole at this circuit would be helpful but that when he had been on pole it did not see him produce any good race results.

Juan Pablo added: "I think pole position would be very important. I've been on pole position five times in the last six races but they didn't seem to help much. The best result was the one where I wasn't on pole."

 
 
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