03/07/2005
NEWS STORY
The BMW WilliamsF1 team drivers Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld finished in 12th and 14th position respectively in today's 70-lap race, after both the cars experienced some technical problems. The team will now work to analyse and understand the reason of these in order to improve their performance for the next Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend.
Mark Webber: My race was hampered today by a huge problem I had with heat in the cockpit area. It became so intense that I had to ask for some water to be poured in around my seat at the pit-stops. It was very uncomfortable to race in that condition and as a result, I now have a large raw burn on my right hip which the doctor has treated. The race itself was difficult, because after starting from poor grid position, we were struggling at the back of the pack. We have a lot of work to do.
Nick Heidfeld: For once at the start I didn't manage to gain any position. Then, at the beginning of the race, I was close to Mark and Coulthard for a while. I stayed ahead of David after the first pit-stop but he pitted later for the second and went in front. Then, suddenly I felt something very wrong with the car. I thought it was a suspension that had failed because it felt really strange, especially in a straight line. From the pits the engineers told me that there was a problem with the differential but that we should try to stay out in order to get the best race result possible for qualifying at the next race in Silverstone. The car was very difficult to drive today.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It was a disappointing race for the team. The performance was not our normal level and we will make the neccessary investigations back at the factory. We also had mechanical problems on both cars that we could also see on the data on the pit- wall. We now need to disassemble and reassemble the cars to confirm what parts have failed in the drive line.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): The race was as weak as the qualifying. Neither of our drivers had a chance to improve. Towards the end of the race, both cars suffered mechanical problems which need to be analyzed. The engines ran without problem. Before the Grand Prix in Silverstone we need to analyse the data of this weekend in order to find the reason for our weak performance here. Testing would be helpful in this situation, but is impossible due to the calendar.