Williams Barcelona Thursday test report

Barcelona Test - Day Four (of four)
10th January 2002

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team concluded the first 2002 season test after four days of intense work in Barcelona this afternoon. Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marc Gené were joined by the test team's new official driver, Antonio Pizzonia who acquitted himself well by claiming the fastest time of the opening day of the test.

Running three cars, including two interim chassis with the new BMW engine, the team concentrated on durability and reliability running of the entire powertrain, as well as running a number of other tests focused on brakes and software. The intermittent weather also provided the ideal opportunity to generate useful data for Michelin and positive progress was made in determining wet and intermediate set-ups.

Sam Michael (WilliamsF1 Chief Operations Engineer)
"The team completed a productive test despite changeable weather conditions. We managed to complete significant mileage in dry, intermediate and wet conditions which will make a positive contribution to both Michelin's tyre work, and of course has provided significant reliability and durability running for the new engine and gearbox. Besides this we also made some good progress with some brake developments and electronic control software analysis. Because of the varied conditions, it has however proved difficult to read too much into anyone's performance here, but I am very satisfied with what we have achieved."

Dr Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director)
"We have run three cars during all four days in Barcelona, with two of them running the new engine, the P82. Lots of mileage was covered and numerous useful results were recorded. The P82 has proven to have the potential we expected it to have. As expected some weaknesses have shown up which were impossible to discover on the test bench, but we had no fundamental problems. The third car was running last years' engine. The main target of this car was to support the tyre development of our partner Michelin."

-williams-