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Ralf believes the leading contenders for the Formula One world championship, including himself, have closed the gap on Michael Schumacher. He believes Michael must watch out with Finn Kimi Raikkonen, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and himself all threatening. "Of course Michael is the benchmark but I think the competition has caught up" Ralf told German sports agency SID ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday. "He will have a real fight on his hands this season. It is realistic to say that we can fight for the world championship. Winning the title would be a dream but 18 hard races stand in front of that dream and a lot can happen" Melbourne's Albert Park street circuit has a reputation for causing accidents but Ralf is raring to tackle the course. "I look forward to Australia every year. I love the circuit and the atmosphere" In fact he loves the country so much he can envisage settling down there when he hangs up his overalls. "It is a beautiful country and the people are so friendly. After my career is over I can imagine my family and I settling down here" source: hindustantimes.com Ralf interviewed in the New Zealand Herald - Auckland 1.3.04 "What Michael has achieved is great but I am a different person, a different driver with my own ambitions. My aim is to win a world championship, too and I can do that. But that is nothing to do with Michael, it is up to me. Even when he retires from driving there will be somebody to take his place at the top. Maybe me, maybe before then" Ralf was on his first visit to New Zealand, helping promote the new BMW 6 series coupe. "Doing this gives me a chance to come to New Zealand, which is something new for me". And flogging BMW's rich boys' toys comes easily to Ralf. After all, he has six of them at home. Williams BMW have made some radical changes to their latest racing rocket, the FW26, and Ralf says the complete package which has been so much a part of Ferrari's domination in the last three years is almost within his team's grasp. "The car feels very good, very fast. We are happy with the new aerodynamics, the engine and the progress made on the tyres. But at this level so much comes down to tactics and strategy. That is where we hope to improve" Ralf and Montoya are comparably fast and with so little between them there is little chance of either helping the other out until the team's leading championship contender becomes obvious during the season. "If it gets to the point that Juan has the best chance of winning then of course I will help him out. After all we are a team, and race for both the drivers' and constructors' titles" Ralf hopes he will not give away the huge points start he did to his brother and Finnish sensation Kimi Raikkonen last season. "But I am looking forward to getting back into the car" Ralf is boasting of his chance to steal title-victory from his Ferrari-driving brother. He said one-week out from the start of the new F1 season that his team is in a 'very good position.' He told Gazzetta dello Sport: '[We're looking] better than we ever have done. We are convinced that our package is ready for victories right from the start... I'm particularly confident this year' Ralf played-down the significance of beating Michael in a test at a freezing and snow-disrupted Imola circuit earlier this week. On Wednesday, just to complete the vague turn of events at the final pre-season session, Michael was much faster than the FW26 in the top-team 'head-to-head'. Ralf said on Tuesday: 'In these conditions, how can we understand the relative potential of our cars? It's impossible. I haven't even looked at the F2004 but Ferrari remain the team to beat' Ralf also raved about the test-pace of British team BAR. 'I honestly think that they could fight for victory at some races' source: homeoff1.com Ralf claims he is ready to burn rubber in 2004 and put aside his respect for sibling and six-time World champion Michael Schumacher, in a bid to win a first Formula One championship. Despite being one of the leading drivers in Formula One, Ralf has been forced into the gigantic shadow cast by his elder brother Michael. However, Ralf vowed to emerge from the darkness and write his own chapter in Formula One history when the season starts in Melbourne on March 7. "Enough with the jokes - I am not going to brake for Michael any more" Ralf told German daily Bild. "I am not going to take my foot off the pedal for my brother. I will give it my all just like Michael taught me to do" Since Ralf first arrived in Forumla One there have been suggestions that he showed Michael too much respect on the racing circuit and would not drive to the limit to overtake him. source: channelnewsasia.com Ralf hopes to jump ahead of the field in Melbourne's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in just three weeks. He has a highly-innovative BMW-Williams FW26 racer with which to attack the often bumpy surface before two following 'flyaway' grands prix. "If you've got a few points in your pocket before coming back to Europe it makes life a whole lot easier" he said in reference to races in Malaysia and Bahrain. "It's hard to predict where we are against the other teams because you can't really say what has been the actual result from [winter] testing" Ralf highlighted the importance of damper and spring set-up on the temporary street-circuit at picturesque Albert Park, south of Melbourne. "There are quite a few bumpy bits and particularly on Friday the surface is very dirty and it's very easy to spin the car. The only overtaking point is at the first corner" source: homeoff1.com ITV-F1's James Allen quizzes Ralf on his hopes & expectations for 2004 Is this the most competitive package you have had to date in F1? I would say that the FW26 is the best car I have ever had at the beginning of a season. A car has to be competitive when it first comes out of the factory. We missed it last year, but we had a satisfying start this year. How do you feel the McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BAR might go? There’s no doubt Ferrari is the team to beat. It’s not up to them to beat us, it’s up to us to show that we have managed to close the gap. McLaren will be very strong, believe me. They have had enough time to prepare their new car and even with their so called old car they have been very competitive. To be honest, I don’t see Renault in a championship position as I imagine they might have some problems with their new engine. But I have to say that they have been very strong at the tests. BAR surprised me in Barcelona - even if they were running on low fuel and even if they did these impressive lap times for show, they are fast! But I don’t know if this is the standard of the new car. If it is, there is a new opponent. You were one of the best last year at single lap qualifying. Does the new qualifying format excite you or will it help the others to find the elusive sweet spot in the second session? I don’t see any difference to last year’s format, even if there is less time between the two sessions. I’m really looking forward to proving myself twice within a few minutes. After a few problems at the beginning of last year’s season, I managed to improve and maintain my concentration for the single lap qualifying, something I probably learned from my time in Japan. How do you feel you can get some continuity into your season in terms of stringing together a long series of podiums and wins? I don’t think that there will be lots of wins in a row for one of the favourites, but it will be very important stringing together a long period of podiums. We all will have fast and reliable cars, therefore the man who is able to score as many points as possible race by race will win the championship. Ralf on JPM's departure from Williams: I don't mind who ends up being my team partner in 2005, but it's fair to say that I can't see anyone approaching the quality of Juan. I think it's a shame that they should let him go, and what's more, I think it's a mistake. source: slam.canoe.ca Ralf: Good luck to all these people who keep on smashing lap records. I'm not looking for lap records now. I'd rather have a lap record in Melbourne. source: planet-f1.com The Williams BMW team insists that it will back Montoya even though he is leaving. Indeed, the team has a history of giving its drivers equal treatment even if, as happened in 1986 with Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, it resulted in the two drivers taking points from each other and Alain Prost sneaking through to win the drivers championship. Remember, too, that Ralf's negotiations for a contract with Williams in 2005 are currently on hold. If both drivers end up leaving the team, then there's even less reason to favor one over the other. Ralf: "At the end of the day, it depends on who is the quicker guy anyway. If by accident I would be clearly the quicker guy in the car, then it (priority treatment) might happen. But we try to win two championships. There are the drivers and constructors championships. We need both drivers for that, so there is no reason to not look after Juan as good as they do after me" source: espn.go.com Michael Schumacher says he never wants to race in the same team as his brother. Michael's current team mate Rubens Barrichello has signed a new deal with Ferrari until 2006 and Michael said he was glad that the chance of teaming up with his brother had not arisen. "No that wouldn't have been nice at all for one main reason; if both Ralf and myself were in one team we would race and one would be the winner and one the loser. That is something that Ralf doesn't want to do to me and I don't want to do to Ralf. If you are fighting in two different teams you may call it winning and losing but then you call it under different circumstances and other things will be responsible for that" Michael compared his and Ralf's situation to that of German-based Ukrainian boxing brothers Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko. "The Klitschko brothers will never box against each other and we won't do the same in F1. We don't want to fight (against) each other in the same car" source: boston.com Ralf told reporters at the launch of the new Williams FW26 car that he expected Ferrari's six times champion to be as strong as ever when the new season starts in Australia in March. But he was confident that his BMW-powered team, with a radically different looking car, could help him be a genuine challenger right from the start of the championship. Ralf: "It might be the season where we have the best ever possibility of winning it. We learnt from last year... we had a problem with the FW25 as a car itself so we had to put it right aerodynamically and we didn't understand it mechanically. We expect to be very competitive this year. Last year we never thought about it (the championship) and then all of a sudden we were going for it. I think now we all know what it takes, we learned from last year. It's fair to say that yes, it might be the season where we have the best ever possibility of winning it. He (Michael) is still there and he will try to win. It's pretty obvious... why should it be different this year?" However, Montoya has already signed for McLaren for 2005, leaving Ralf potentially as Williams's long-term prospect even if he has yet to negotiate a new contract after the end of the season. Ralf: "I like Juan as a person and I understand and respect his decision. He had an opportunity to drive for another great team under maybe better conditions and I respect that" Ralf said his own contract negotiations, currently stalled, would not unsettle him. "At the moment I just want to concentrate on what I'm doing. The first three months of the year are very important and after that when I see how successful it could be then we will continue to think about the contract. I have freedom in all possibilities. Even if it takes to the end of this year I don't mind. At the moment I am thinking BMW Williams but at the end of the day if there is no possibility to find a way of working together then I will certainly have to look for another cockpit but that's far down the road. It's not about the money, the money is not a problem" source: iol.co.za Ralf said negotiations to extend his contract at Williams had been put on ice during the presentation of the new FW26 car. He added however he would be looking for another team if negotiations did not go as planned. Ralf: "I decided to stop it because it was lasting too long and I wanted to focus on my driving. Right now I think BMW-Williams but at the end of the day... if we can't find a way to continue together, I'll start looking for another cockpit but that's far down the road. We missed two titles last year but we have a better base this year so hopefully we'll go for the championship" source: channelnewsasia.com Ralf is aiming to win his brother Michael's world championship title this year, he told the German Bild newspaper. He said that winning the title was his first priority, more important even than negotiating an extension of his contract that expires at the end of the year. Ralf: "That we have decided to continue our negotiations in April was my decision. I want to concentrate on winning races. We will then always be able to reach an agreement if the conditions are right" Ralf has put a lot of pressure on himself for the new season, which begins on 7 March. "Yes of course we have to go for the title this year. That has to be our - and my - goal. If that is not our aim, we have a problem" Ralf said that the new car gives him reason to be optimistic: "The FW26 is a revolutionary car. It even looks different from what we are used to in Formula One. The aerodynamics are totally new and unlike last season, we know that everything works in the new car" Ralf predicted problems for his brother's team, Ferrari. "If they only want to present their new car at the end of January, it will be very tight. Especially, if they want to drive the new car in the first race in Melbourne" He said he was disappointed that the season was not starting immediately. "We would be able to compete fully with Ferrari and McLaren if the season was to start now" source: expatica.com Ralf does not expect his future to become any clearer for at least several months. He cannot agree terms with his employers over a proposed new contract through to 2006. Sources, including his manager Willi Weber, explained that the stumbling block related to terms of the agreement, including deals with personal sponsors. But Ralf hints that it might not entirely be true: "The real reasons are confidential. I would not expect anything to happen in the near future" Ralf continued to Germany's Bild publication that stalling the talks were "my decision". Sources continue to insist that Ralf, Weber and Sir Frank Williams maintain opposite views on how much he should be paid per year. Ralf is looking for a $3.6 million pay-increase, according to an insider source: homeoff1.com |
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