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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.
Both
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."
As
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." |