Work ahead for BMW after engine failures

By Andrew Hooper
June 11 2002

 

 

 
Work ahead for BMW
 
Last weekends Canadian Grand Prix would see both BMW engines fail on the twp FW24's of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. The failure of Juan Pablo's was that much more dramatic as he was challenging for the lead of the race at the time where as Ralf's failed after he had crossed the finish line in only seventh position.

Dr Mario TheissenFor BMW the spate of engine failures is something of concern as they had a record of reliability to be proud of. But for Dr Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director, those involved in the design and construction of the BMW V10's are preparing to investigate why the team suffered these engine failures.

With such a short break between the Canadian Grand Prix and the next at the Nürburgring for the European Grand Prix there is a lot of work to be done to examine the failures and take appropriate steps to ensure that it does not happen again. Both engines were flown directly back to Munich for this process to commence.

On BMW's website Theissen said: "Already on Sunday we removed the two engines and brought them directly to Munich to the factory the fastest possible way."

"There, by Thursday at the latest, we will become clear about the problem. Then, on Tuesday, the results will be sent directly to Jerez, where they will be integrated with the test program we use to prepare for the first home race of the season. I hope that I can tell you about better results after the Grand Prix of Europe on the Nürburgring in 14 days."

As for how everyone at BMW felt about the results of the Canadian race Theissen added: "There is no doubt that this result was a disappointment to us after having achieved the pole position on Saturday - especially because we hoped for a good result after our last year's victory there."

"Our team had sent Juan and Ralf into the race, giving each of the two a different task. For Juan Pablo two stops were scheduled, for Ralf only one - and unfortunately that pit stop failed. It was not the first time that there were problems with the FIA-filling station. Although we're still number one in the reliability statistics, we're going to do our homework after what happened in Canada.

"Both engines failed without any preceding alert. Whereas the engine of Ralf's car failed just after the finishing line, Juan had considerably more bad luck. In the last 13 laps he had a good race and was just about to make up for lost ground in comparison to Michael Schumacher. We already expected a thrilling fight for the victory."

With the team commencing another round of testing at Jerez BMW will have to make use of this time to ensure that the drop off in reliability is reversed.

 
 
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