Estoril Williams testing notes 2001-09-21

Day one and two warm and dry, day three rain interrupted morning but dry afternoon. Average air temperature 19ºC. Average track temperature 22ºC.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team has been testing in Estoril for the past three days with Marc Gene driving on the 19th and 20th, Ralf Schumacher on the 21st and Petrobras Junior Team drivers, Antonio Pizzonia and Ricardo Sperafico, spending a day and a half each in a second FW23.

Antonio drove on the first day, Ricardo on the second and then they had half a day each today. It total Antonio did 507 kilometres, Ricardo did 511 kilometres, Marc 750 kilometres and Ralf 281 kilometres.

The Team did tyre testing for Michelin and also chassis and engine testing and all in all it was a very successful three days.

Ricardo Sperafico
"I really enjoyed driving the car, it was a great experience for me and I definitely learnt a lot. This is the first time I have driven a Formula 1 car on a proper track. What this has taught me is there is a big difference between Formula 1 and Formula 3000, but the engineers did a great job helping me make the transition."

Antonio Pizzonia
"The first day was good and I really felt I learnt a lot, which is very important. Today it was wet so there was not a lot I could do. This was the first time I had driven a Formula 1 car in the wet but with the traction control it was not too difficult. All in all I am really pleased with how everything went."

The team does not want unfair comparisons so we will not be issuing any lap times.