WilliamsF1 Team Comments: Saturday Qualifying

By Andrew Hooper
April 6 2003

 
 
Brazilian GP Saturday - Team Comments
 
The BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya will start tomorrow's race from the third and fifth rows of the grid respectively, having qualified in 6th and 9th positions on today's dry track.
 
Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya"All in all it has been a pretty good qualifying, even if lost a bit of time in the last two corners due to some understeer. In the third sector I lost something like three or four tenths from my out lap to my timed lap and this is of course a bit disappointing. That's what we've got for tomorrow but I think we are going to have a good race."
 
Ralf Schumacher
 Ralf Schumacher"I had too much understeer in some sectors of the circuit and I think I lost two or three tenths there. I was also a bit too careful braking into turns seven and eight. However, all in all I am quite happy. I think we've achieved some further improvements with our new chassis. We have used here a new front wing and a modified rear suspension for the first time."
 
Dr Mario Theissen BMW Motorsports Director
 Mario Theissen"The Brazilian public can be happy with the outcome of this qualifying. Finally local hero Rubens Barrichello is on pole, but we can't say we are unhappy either. This was one of the tightest qualifying sessions I can remember: The first 15 drivers have qualified within just one second. If one thinks that ten kilos of fuel costs about 0.3 seconds every lap, it is clear how important the fuel load is. We will know the answer to this question tomorrow."
 
Sam Michael Chief Operations Engineer WilliamsF1
 Sam Michael"Obviously we would always prefer to be a bit further up on the grid. But the race tomorrow is a different story . Since the advent of the new regulations it is very difficult to evaluate everybody's qualifying performance and we are keen to see on which strategy the other teams are on. We have done better in today's dry qualifying than we did under wet conditions yesterday. The new aero parts and the new rear suspension have improved the performance of the car and it is our task to find further improvements as we head into the European sector of the season."
 
 
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