Won't happen overnight

By Andrew Hooper
January 22 2003

 

 

  
Won't happen over night
 
The BMW WilliamsF1 team is nearing the day when they will unveil their 2003 contender, the FW25. But for the WilliamsF1 team the challenge to close the gap between themselves and their rivals Ferrari is not a small task.

It has been accepted by the WilliamsF1 team that the new car must be able to take the fight to Ferrari and if this means taking a few risks in its design that is acceptable. But according to WilliamsF1 Chief Operations Engineer, Sam Michael, it isn't going to happen overnight.

In an interview for Auto Action magazine Michael was quoted as saying: "We have things in place to try to close down the gap, but it's not going to happen overnight. They're (Ferrari) not going to drop the ball. There were two or three times early in the year (2002) when we thought we could carry the momentum to make a challenge for the title. But there were also a lot of times when it felt a bit like turning up at school without having done your homework and you had to do an exam.

We all got a bit sick of turning up to races knowing we weren't going to be competitive. It's not a good feeling when you're trying hard, but it just means we have to try even harder. The gaps between Williams and Ferrari are not short-term gains, they're things that take six to 12 months to put in place."
 
 
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