18/06/2004
NEWS STORY
For a few short hours last Sunday, it appeared that WilliamsF1 had finally turned the corner and that the Grove outfit's championship challenge was back on track.
Its drivers had finished 2nd and 5th, adding 12 points to the tally, moving the multi-championship winners a lot closer to rivals BAR and Renault.
Then came the rumour that FIA officials were holding an enquiry, followed, shortly afterwards, by the news that both cars, along with the two Toyotas, had been disqualified.
The team's frustration was not helped by the fact that according to newly appointed technical director Sam Michael, this was his first race in sole charge, there was no gain in performance from the over-sized brake ducts.
After a few days of 'mourning' as to what could have been, team boss Frank Williams insists that it's time to move on.
"Well you could say the responsibility stops with me at the end of the day," said the Englishman, "but we are a large organisation and there was a chain of events that I am not going to dissect here but we were very clumsy in that particular part.
"I think we all believe there is no implication of achieving an aerodynamic advantage with that by cheating. We made a mistake and paid a heavy price and we have no quarrel with that.
"It is behind us as far as I am concerned," he added, "and as far as the team is concerned. We learn from our mistakes and clearly we learned very heavily that weekend."
"I think we were all disappointed," added Ralf Schumacher, who consequently lost eight points, "especially the mechanics. It was the result we were desperately looking for, but that is the way it is.
"In my time at Williams we have never had a problem," he added. "It was just an unfortunate incident and, as Frank just said, we have never and will never cheat. It was not our intention."