16/10/2005
NEWS STORY
The last race of the 2005 season, which also marked the end of the 6-year partnership between BMW and WilliamsF1, saw Mark Webber taking 7th place while team-mate Antonio Pizzonia was forced to retire on the last lap when he was running 11th, due to a puncture to his right rear tyre.
Mark Webber: It has been quite a frustrating Grand Prix I don't think many drivers enjoyed it. The safety cars destroyed the race for many of us but that's the way it goes sometimes. It was a shame I could not get Barrichello earlier. He had absolutely no speed in the corners but good top speed so I could not attack him on the straight. I want to thank all the team, because throughout the season we had zero retirements related to the work they did. An absolutely incredible job from all of them.
Antonio Pizzonia: It was a difficult race for me. It was a very hard decision for the team to take both Mark and myself in for our pit-stops when the second safety car came out. We took a risk and unfortunately it didn't go our way, but this is racing. Track conditions changed a lot throughout the race and that made everything more difficult. Also, we lacked speed on the straight which is vital for over-taking. We couldn't finish this season as we had wished but in general I think for me this was again a very good experience which enabled me to learn another new circuit.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It is not really the end that we would have liked to have had to the season because the car was stronger today than the result. Anyway, that's it for the 2005 season. Now we're looking forward to returning to our winning form next year. With Mark's race strategy we should have been further up if we hadn't been held off for so long by Barrichello. Congratulations to Renault for taking both Championships, they really deserved it more than any other team.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Due to the incidents and safety car phases it was quite a turbulent race today. In the end, the two drivers who have dominated the entire season were at the front. Behind them just about anything was possible today. Mark got stuck behind Rubens Barrichello after his second pit stop and therefore missed out on the chance of a podium finish, which would have been a very nice conclusion to our six years partnership with WilliamsF1. However, one can say that our team performed well in the last few races. Congratulations to Renault for a well deserved constructors' title.