By Andrew Hooper
June 7 2002
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| Montoya looking forward to Canada | |
| As the team prepare for this
weekends Canadian Grand Prix, for BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya
has to prepare himself for this race after the disappointment of the Monaco
Grand Prix where was to retire with engine failure.
In regard to his performances so far in the 2002 season Juan Pablo said: "It was a bit disappointing that we didn't finish the last race in Monaco because we had a technical problem, but sooner or later it was going to happen. But this year I am a lot more experienced, the team understands me a lot better and it just makes things a lot easier. Last year I had a lot of races where we were in the points and the car broke down. We had a lot of reliability issues and I had two crashes - one in Monaco and one here (in Canada) last year - and I was just trying to compensate for the job we were not doing with the engineers. I think it was a difficult point for me because I was telling the team I've got this and I've got that and they say you can't have that sometimes. Rather than have that you couldn't really have that and it got to a point where I said just change it and from then on things started to go better and they changed this to suit my driving and that really helped." As for what has changed in regard to his driving between 2001 and now, and even from his days when he drove in the CART championship, Juan Pablo added: "Of course, it changes a little bit, to try to get the maximum out of the car. Every car you have got to drive in a different way. There are some cars that if you brake really late then you make more time than going high speed through the corners and stuff like that. The Champ Car was a very heavy car compared with the Formula One, and the way you drive it was completely different, but it never really was an issue how I needed to drive, the issue was I couldn't really get comfortable with the car. Monaco last year, I hardly qualified seventh and I struggled all weekend, and this year I put the car on pole by four tenths. If you are happy with the car and you feel comfortable pushing you are going to go further than anybody else." As for his thoughts about this weekends race Juan Pablo saw the Montreal track as one he likes and where tyres will once again play a major role. Juan Pablo said: "I think
from what we saw last week, the tyres can be crucial for qualifying. A lot
of races can be decided where you qualify. I think it will play a big part
as always, but for BMW and everyone it's a good track. Despite the fact that the team won at this circuit in 2001 the BMW WilliamsF1 team will have to improve on their race performances are been let down quite badly in Monaco. If Michelin can provide the team with a suitable tyre there is no reason why the success of 2001 can not be repeated in 2002. |
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