Belgian GP: Williams Friday notes

It was an unusual start to the Belgian Grand Prix weekend in Spa- Francorchamps. Because of poor visibility which prevented the medical helicopter from flying, the start of the first Free Practice session was delayed for one hour and was curtailed to 30 minutes only. The BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were 5th and 8th respectively. Montoya's track time was limited to 3 laps only in the first session due to a problem with his gearbox, which had to be changed.

Ralf Schumacher

"I am very happy with my car. There is nothing, which could cause me any real problems. However, I think that there is still room for improvement on the set-up side and we have a couple of things to sort out before we can make our final tyre choice. I am not worried too much either by the kerbs in the Bus-Stop chicane."

Juan Pablo Montoya

"In spite of the fact that we haven't proved to be very competitive today I am quite confident we can improve our performance as I know there is some more to come in the car. On a Friday it is very difficult to judge where everybody really is due to the fuel level so I would not look too much at the lap times. Still the balance of my car is not the best but I am sure we can fix it for tomorrow."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):

"Our Friday's programme was interrupted with the start of the session delayed by weather problems but still we managed to achieve some good information for the race. We tried the normal alternatives required by the Spa circuit, such as different tyres and downforce levels. In the morning we had a mechanical problem with Juan's gearbox, which cost him some track time. We have some work to do but all in all we are satisfied with our standing so far."

Gerhard Berger (BMW Motorsport Director):

"Juan Pablo had some gearbox problems that we could fix. We concentrated on our Friday set-up programme and we are reasonably happy with the outcome. It is going to be hard to challenge Ferrari here in Spa as well, however we should be able to get closer to them."

Ralf Schumacher: 5th
Chassis: FW24 06
Best time: 1.48,435 min

Juan Pablo Montoya: 8th
Chassis: FW24 04 (T-Car FW24 02)
Best time: 1.48,969 min

-williams-