WilliamsF1 Team Comments: German GP

By Andrew Hooper
August 4 2003

	German GP Race - Team Comments
	The fourth win of the 2003 season put the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in a strong position in both the Constructor and Drivers FIA Formula One World Championship. Juan Pablo Montoya achieved his second victory of the year in Sunday's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and in doing so has moved up to second place in the Drivers Championship. He now has 65 points, six less than leader Michael Schumacher. The BMW WiliamsF1 Team remain in second position in the battle for the Constructors' title, having reduced the gap to Ferrari to just two points. It was the ninth win since the foundation of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in 2000. However, Ralf Schumacher was unable to complete the race when his FW25 was involved in an accident with Barrichello's Ferrari and Raikkonen's McLaren Mercedes at the start which caused him to retire on the first lap of the race.
	Juan Pablo Montoya "A perfect finish to a perfect race weekend. The car was excellent. I started from the clean side of the track and basically I just had to be consistent, to keep the same pace all race and to try not to make any mistakes. It was amazing how I could pull away and maybe because of this it was not too bad a race from the physical point of view. I am happy to be only six points away from Michael now, since there are just four races to go and it is so important to score points consistently, for me this counts now more than ever before. Things can easily go wrong for everybody as we have witnessed today when it happened to both of the Schumacher's."
	Ralf Schumacher "It's obviously a huge disappointment but this is the way motor racing is sometimes. You cannot think about what people around you are doing and sometimes these incidents do happen. I was just trying to defend my position and I didn't make any sudden move or anything so there was all the time in the world for other cars to move away from me. The impact from Raikkonen's car crashing into my car, damaged all of the left sidepod and radiator and the floor and I couldn't do anything but retire."
	Gerhard Berger BMW Motorsports Director "It was important for us to turn our strengths here into points. Especially regarding the Constructors' world championship we are now within striking distance of Ferrari. There is a lot that can happen over the remaining four rounds of the season. Juan Pablo drove a perfect race, but Ralf had bad luck.. Even under these hot conditions the chassis and our BMW P83 engine have proven to be very reliable."
	Sam Michael Chief Operations Engineer WilliamsF1 "It was another fantastic performance from the entire team. Juan drove an error-free and superb race from start to finish. The engineers did an excellent job in preparing the car, and also the strategy was very good. We were able to pull away from the rest of the field right after the first pit stop. To be honest, it was surprising to us that quite a number of teams went for a two stop strategy. For us, the decision for three stops was very clear. Furthermore the tyre choice obviously was right as they worked very well in the heat. Unfortunately we lost Ralf's car only a few seconds after the start, otherwise, I definitely believe it would have been another one-two victory for the BMW WilliamsF1 Team today."