Williams Barcelona testing notes 2001-10-05

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team has completed the third of its four day test at the Barcelona Circuit. Marc Gene will be driving on all four days, Antonio Pizzonia will be driving every day except yesterday, when Ralf Schumacher took over the FW23. The team has a total of three cars at the test with Marc driving the car fitted with the new 2002 BMW engine. Tomorrow only Marc and Antonio will be testing as BMW Spain have the use of the circuit and so have allowed the team to do a few extra hours.

Sam Michael, WilliamsF1 Chief Operations Engineer
We have used this important final test of 2001 to sign off on some last minute components for next year's car and have also done some work for Michelin for the last race in Suzuka. We were happy that Antonio could join us again as he has done a good job.

Marc has been doing development work for next year putting mileage on the new engine for BMW and the new gearbox for WilliamsF1.

Dr. Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director
The last test of the 2001 season is very important for us. I'm happy the BMW WilliamsF1 Team managed to run the 2002 V10 engine in an interim chassis before the long test ban, which runs until the end of the year. This was a big effort on behalf of the whole team. On Wednesday and today we've put some mileage on the new engine and generated a lot of important data. With that basic information at hand we can work on improvements on the dyno during the winter. We also ran this year's P80 engine at the test.

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team would like to wish Ralf Schumacher and his fiance, Cora Brinkmann, all the best for the future as they were married today in a private ceremony in Austria.

<pre> Driver Car Time Laps ----------------------------------------------------- Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1:18.794 129 Mark Webber Benetton-Renault 1:19.388 30 Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar 1:20.407 125 Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 1:20.891 85 Marc Gene Williams-BMW 1:21.104 32 WilliamsF1 T Car Williams-BMW 1:21.885 42