2004 Belgian GP Race: Team Comments
By BMW WilliamsF1
August 29 2004
| Belgian GP Race - Team Comments |
|
The BMW WilliamsF1 Team
suffered bad luck today, with neither car crossing the finish line
despite showing a strong performance. Juan Pablo Montoya and Antonio
Pizzonia failed to collect any points from an exciting and eventful
Belgian Grand Prix due to a tyre failure for the Colombian and a gearbox
problem for the Brazilian. The problems spelt a premature end to their
races when both drivers were running in a strong third position. Test: Monza 1, 2, 3 September (Juan Pablo Montoya, Antonio Pizzonia, Ralf Schumacher) |
Juan Pablo Montoya DNF
(tyre failure on lap 37)Chassis: FW26 06 Best time: 1:46.547 min (lap36, 6th overall) "Bad luck again, today. The car was really good and I was having a good race and running third with a few laps to go, but then the right rear tyre failed, and some other parts of the car were damaged forcing me to retire. That’s racing, what can you do? It’s not the first time that this has happened and probably not the last, but one has to accept it. Still, it was a good race. In spite of my poor grid position I had a good start and gained several places, helped by the accidents on the first lap. I’d climbed up to fifth by lap five and basically battled all race in the top positions. The team helped me by doing very good pit-stops and coming up with a good strategy so it’s a real shame what happened to me and Antonio today." |
Antonio Pizzonia DNF
(gearbox problem on lap 32)Chassis: FW26 07 Best time: 1:46.740 min (lap 26, 8th overall) "What a shame! I hadn’t had the smallest problem with my car all race and then, suddenly, I lost all the gears when I was running third. Bad day for the team and it’s a true pity that Juan Pablo failed to finish too, but this is motor racing, isn’t it? I came to Spa thinking that I could achieve my first podium in F1 here and I proved this was possible, but I was hoping for a better outcome. Still, today we showed a strong performance and this is what we have to take away form here." |
Dr Mario Theissen BMW
Motorsports Director "This
was more than an eventful race today, with all the dramas that one would
normally see in half a season and a very unfortunate outcome for us.
When our drivers were running in third and fourth positions, Antonio
suddenly lost drive. A bit later, Juan Pablo had a tyre failure, the
rear of his car got damaged and he had to retire. The remarkable number
of tyre failures today needs to be carefully analysed for safety
reasons. Congratulations to Kimi Räikkönen for a convincing victory and
to Michael Schumacher for winning his seventh Drivers’ Title."
|
Sam Michael
Technical Director WilliamsF1 "For
us, it was obviously a disappointing race in terms of the final results.
However, it was encouraging competing at the front again, while our cars
where running. Antonio drove well and Juan Pablo showed his overtaking
skills again. Antonio lost drive on his car and had to stop on the
track. On Juan’s car, we had a tyre failure which damaged the rear
suspension and the rear wing. He managed to drive the car back to the
pits but could not continue."
|
 |
 |
| Click image for HP F1 Site |