The BMW WilliamsF1 Team today confirmed that long term technical partner, Petrobras, has extended and broadened its commercial partnership with the team into the medium term.

Petrobras, the Brazilian petroleum company, has been providing advanced fuel engineering competence to the team since 1998, and under the terms of this extended relationship, will continue to provide a leading edge technical partnership to the team.

The extended relationship is symbolised by the increased branding on the team race cars, but also less visibly by the introduction of a completely new race fuel for the 2005 season.

In light of the new engine regulations, which require the team's BMW powerplants to compete for two race weekends, Petrobras have developed a new race fuel which helps to extend the life of critical engine components while retaining a strong performance characteristic.

Petrobras' world-class competence in this field is derived from extensive investment in analysis, research and development and testing of fuel blends with product s from its facilities in Brazil and other countries in South America.

Sam Michael, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team Technical Director said, "Petrobras have been a long-standing technical partner of the team that lend us real competitive advantage, and never more so with the recent rule changes to engines. The new race fuel we will be using in 2005 has helped us retrieve some of the engine performance that would otherwise have been lost to the rule changes"

Rogerio Goncalves, the technical co-ordinator of the Petrobras F1 Programme said, "We are delighted to extend our relationship with our long term partners, not just to promote the Petrobras name internationally, but also to present the most demanding competition criteria – such as the new rules this year, and the prospective introduction of biofuels – to ensure we stay at the forefront of fuel technology."