Ralf Schumacher gets Berger's Praise

After his victory in the 2003 European Grand Prix BMW WilliamsF1 driver Ralf Schumacher received praise from various team members including BMW Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger.

For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the results of the race could not have been better, with the team securing a one-two, BMW beat their rivals Mercedes Benz, the race was in front of Ralf's home town, it was Ralf's birthday, the race was sponsored by one of the teams major sponsors Allianz, and the team has just the day before announced a new five year deal. What more could you ask for.

Also Ralf put to rest the criticism that was levelled at him after the previous Grand Prix in Canada for not been aggressive enough in not making any passing moves on his brother Michael, who went on to win the race.

BMW motorsport director Berger said: "I feel really happy for the team and especially for Ralf. Today he demonstrated to everybody that he is a first-class driver. Ralf drove a perfect race. He showed everyone that he can win a race and is capable of being a world champion."

For Sir Frank Williams it was very much the case that Ralf had a point to prove, in that he can challenge his brother fro race wins. Williams said: ""I'm pretty sure that Ralf is burning to piss on his brother, apologies to the ladies."

Ralf explained how what he thought of the race victory and the recent criticism by saying: "It has been a long time. I’ve had a couple of pole positions but I couldn’t turn them into victory. I got a bit of criticism but, you see, even a bad driver can win a race, so…

"I had a very good start and for some reason Michael did not. I took the chance and jumped into second position into the first corner. I think that seen from the outside that manoeuvre looked more spectacular than it actually was."

As for those who had previously criticised him Ralf had a go at them by saying: "I don’t know. It’s down to the experts, those who call themselves experts after the race. This was far more important. For the team, we took an amazing step, if you remember where we started. I can’t remember a team turning it around so much from start of the season. Again, it’s amazing what a job the team has done this year."