San Marino GP Friday practise (brief)

Ralf Schumacher, who won fourth place in this year's Formula One World Championship, clearly wants an even better result in the next season. But the BMW WilliamsF1 Team driver also believes greater awareness of safety among his colleagues on the track would be beneficial.

"The changes to the rules for 2002 make sense," noted Schumacher during an informational discussion with Frank Williams and safety experts from team sponsor, Allianz, at the WilliamsF1 headquarters in Grove (England) yesterday. At the same time, he called for responsible behaviour on the part of the pilots themselves. "Drivers always want more safety. But this also means getting into the habit of driving somewhat more carefully again." said Schumacher.

Changes for 2002 required by the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) include an additional lateral test of the crash structures at the rear of the vehicle and an enlargement of the tail light and rear-view mirrors. WilliamsF1 Managing Director Frank Williams noted that these rather minor changes to the technical requirements are another example of the high safety standards in Formula One. Efforts towards continued improvements in this area will never cease.

As Frank Williams put it: "The FIA has given us a break to catch our breath. I expect there will be greater changes again to the rules for the 2003 season." In this drive towards increased safety, WilliamsF1 sees the possibility of benefiting from the vast knowledge, especially in terms of statistics, accumulated by the accident experts at the Allianz Center of Technology (AZT). He talked about the risk areas in Formula One, which require a high level of research. “There are points of overlap in our knowledge," he said.

Ralf visited the WilliamsF1 factory on the 18th October 2001 as a guest of Allianz. He toured the factory, learned more about some of the safety features built into his FW23 and signed autographs for some of the 400+ factory staff. He also took time out to meet 90 Allianz Cornhill guests and answer some questions for them as well as conduct interviews for the media.