24/07/2005
NEWS STORY
In spite of their encouraging starting positions, neither of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers collected any points today. Nick Heidfeld finished just outside the top ten whereas the race of team-mate Mark Webber was compromised right after the start due to another car hitting his FW27 at the first corner.
Nick Heidfeld: I had a good start, making up two positions. In the beginning it was not bad and I could clearly keep the pace of Michael Schumacher and Button who were both just in front of me. I was unlucky after the pit-stop, just falling behind some two-stoppers and I couldn't go at my own pace anymore. I actually think the biggest problem was that at the end of the first stint something in the rear of the car changed and affected the balance. I was never able to do the lap times after that. Towards the end of the race I had a bit more oversteer and also the engine power was turned down as there was nothing more we could gain. I am disappointed because I thought we could score some points today.
Mark Webber: I don't know what I've got to do this season to get some luck. At the first corner after the start I got hit at the right rear by Sato and had suspension damage. The mechanics replaced the part quickly, but obviously by the time I went back on track I was 11 laps behind the leader. This compromised my race of course, but it will also affect qualifying for the next race, as I will have a very early start slot.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): Obviously Mark had a coming together with Takuma into the first corner. The right rear suspension was damaged so we spent some time in the pits repairing this then he continued with the view to the qualifying slot for the next Grand Prix. On Nick's car we did not manage to make enough progress towards the end of his first stint. Afterwards it was difficult to come back into the points positions. Compared to the last two races we have improved the cars, but it is clear that we still have a lot of work to do.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): In spite of our three-stop strategy, in qualifying we saw some improvement compared to Silverstone, which was not the case in the race. Nick was doing okay until his first pit-stop, but then the lap times never became the same again. This didn't depend on our strategy, as we were just not fast enough for some reason. Mark dropped back due to the collision at the first corner.