Williams better than ever

Ralf Schumacher believes Williams is better than ever and will come out fighting for victories right from the start. The team had an erratic time early last year and it wasn't until mid-season that things really came together, but this time around ...

Ralf Schumacher believes Williams is better than ever and will come out fighting for victories right from the start. The team had an erratic time early last year and it wasn't until mid-season that things really came together, but this time around Ralf is confident from the outset.

Ralf Schumacher.

Photo by Sutton Motorsport Images.

"It's one week until the season starts, and I can say we are in a very good position," he said, according to the Gazzetta dello Sport. "We are better than we've ever been before and we are firmly convinced we have a package that should allow us to fight for victories right from the first few races of the season."

"Last year I tried to take the title away from my brother, but I'm particularly confident this year: I really think that our chances are better this year than twelve months ago."

Williams has been testing at Imola this week and Ferrari was also on track with the F2004, the first time the new car went up against rivals. Ralf beat Michael to the top of the times on Tuesday -- albeit by only six hundredths of a second -- but Michael broke the lap record yesterday to clock the best of the day.

Ralf was away at Monza yesterday but experienced conditions of rain and snow on Tuesday at Imola, which hindered track progress and made it difficult to compare rivals' performances. However, Ralf still sees Ferrari and McLaren as the main competitors.

"I haven't even looked at the F2004," he said. "But Ferrari remain the team to beat. We'll see about McLaren in the next few days, but there's something I already know: they'll be quick."