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Ralf before the European GP: I was absolutely delighted to win my home race last year. Such an event is an unforgettable highlight in a drivers' career, so a repeat performance would be more than welcome. I will obviously do everything I can to make it happen, although our package is not working as well as it was last year. I can promise, though, that we will keep working around the clock to return to form and compete with the front-runners. The Nürburgring has always been special for me. It is only a short drive from Kerpen, where I grew up, so I have watched many races there. I also practiced my road car driving on the old Nordschleife. I've competed in 18 races on the Nürburgring and I won my first race in a Formel BMW Junior car there in 1993, which has to be a good omen. In any case, I am really looking forward to the great atmosphere and hope to see many BMW WilliamsF1 Team fans at the track (source: crash.net) Ralf on the incident between himself and Fernando Alonso at Monaco: Mirabeau and Loews is a bit tight and I wasn't in his way anyway. I just wanted to let him by in the tunnel. Even if I had gone on the throttle I had only fourth gear and I couldn't do anything. I just went to the side, went off the throttle and waited for him to pass me. Anyone who looks at the video will see that I went to the inside and stayed there. There was one-and-a-half cars between us and so I don't see how I pushed him anywhere. Especially in fourth gear. He was going pretty fast and was pretty far to the outside, so I don't know what he's complaining about. He should just calm down. If he took more care then he wouldn't end up in the barrier. It's not my f***ing fault! He was just too late when he decided to pass me. I don't know what he did and I don't know what he was thinking, honestly. Obviously he is frustrated and tries to blame someone instead of admitting to himself that it is his f***-up (source: planet-f1.com) He just ran into some dirt. I'm sorry about it but it wasn't at all intentional. It's not true that I disobeyed the blue flag... I can understand his frustration but he went too far outside, ran into the dirt and then hit the wall. I can understand his being angry. He's rather inexperienced in Formula One and made a mistake. It's clear that he would try to place the blame on someone else. Just wait a week and he'll be calmed down (source: eurosport.com) (and he did calm down eventually but not before giving Ralf the finger and saying "I don't want to waste my time talking to him, I've got more important things to do") Ralf's verdict on the Monaco GP: It’s obviously a disappointing race, but these things seem to happen. Just after a few laps I lost fifth gear, then the sixth and the seventh. By the last few laps I had only fourth gear. I did the best I could but it was obviously very hard to drive in those conditions and I had to retire eventually with just a few laps to go. We just need to keep working and get it right for the next races. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): It has been a turbulent race with many incidents. Ralf lost fifth gear soon after the start and then lost further gears until the gearbox just stopped working completely. This finally cost him the single point that he was racing for. Michael Schumacher blamed a slippery track for failing to qualify on the front row of the grid for the first time this season... It is his worst qualifying performance of the year, the first time he has failed to start from the front row of the grid and Ralf believes it could spell the end of his perfect run of wins. Ralf on Michael's qualifying problems at Monaco: His car is obviously not particularly strong. Obviously he is a fighter and he is simply one of the best drivers at the moment, but if the car doesn't allow him to go fast, he can't. He can't fight as much as he wants to. Let's wait and see how it starts. Usually you could say he could make a good position at the start but I think it is going to be a bit difficult (source: f1.racing-live.com) Ralf was second fastest in qualifying at the Monaco GP but started in 12th after receiving a 10-place penalty for an engine change on Thursday. He was philosophical about his penalty setting his sights on using pit stop strategy to work through the field. Ralf on being demoted 10 places on the grid: I expected us to be reasonably strong here and the team did a great job but obviously due to some problems I have to leave the position to Jenson [Button] At least it worked out pretty well in qualifying. We have our strategy to hopefully make some positions in the pits because overtaking will be difficult. We made the best out of the car. The car is handling as expected or even better, we will definitely have a competitive car for on Sunday. Certainly from where we have to start it will be difficult. But nevermind, sometimes the team make mistakes, sometimes I make mistakes, as I have done many times before and this time it was the engine. I don't really care - we definitely look better than we did in Barcelona (source: sportinglife.com) It's a bitter-sweet result, of course, but all in all I am more pleased with my qualifying performance rather than depressed about the penalty. We got the best out of the car and I am sure we have a competitive set up for the race, but it's going to be difficult from where we'll be starting on the grid. I'm not worried too much about the penalty, though. The important thing is that we keep our morale at a high level. Our car looks better here than it did in Barcelona, as we were expecting, since we thought we had a good package for this track. Let's hope we collect some points tomorrow (source: pitpass.com) The engine problem I had at the beginning of the session undermined all my plans for this weekend, of course. Adding to the penalty that I will have to start 10 places further back on the grid, I have also lost a lot of valuable time for setting up the car. This is not an ideal situation but I'll make the best of it. Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director: There was a defect on Ralf’s car engine right at the beginning of the first Free Practice session, shown by telemetry data as well as oil samples. We need to strip it down to understand what the exact reason was... For the second Free Practice session we put a new engine in Ralf’s car, which will automatically drop him ten places on the starting grid. Ralf before the Monaco GP: I am looking forward to next weekend in Monaco as I lived there for many years. That said, the track is not up-to-date, but nevertheless, last year it was the highlight of the season as on Saturday I was on pole and on Sunday Juan won the race! It was the turning point of what had been a disappointing start of the season and in the end we nearly claimed a World Championship. At the moment we are far away from that possibility, but I would like to believe in a little miracle in the Principality. But looking at it realistically, we are not going to be fighting for the victory unless other teams do not perform at their best. At present the Team is working round the clock, but it will take some time before we can be at the front again. Ralf's verdict on the Spanish GP: Although Ralf didn't have the best of races, by his standards, he still managed to claim sixth place and a further three World Championship points. Ralf, though, had hoped for better. "The result, more or less, reflects our current performances. We could not have achieved a much better position, even with a better start. Furthermore, I had to fight very early on with some brake problems, which meant I had to be very gentle on them until the end. I knew Barcelona was not among our favourite tracks, however I expected more. We must work very hard on our performance in order to make our way back to the top" Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer) It was a pretty disappointing day when you consider our race pace in comparison to the frontrunners. We also made a bad judgement with the brake cooling which ultimately forced Juan to retire and Ralf was on the limit with his brakes for the whole race. Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director) When you start from positions two and six, three points is a poor result. Both the drivers lost some places at the start and you don't recover from a bad start when there are three teams doing the same lap times, like Renault, BAR and ourselves were doing today. At the end of the race, Ralf was able regain the position he had started from, while Juan had to retire. Once again Ferrari dominated, which has allowed them to increase their margin in the fight for the Championship. Williams pushed their luck and paid the price in the Spanish GP as they wrestled with brake problems. Sam Michael: We made a decision to go for much smaller (brake) ducts to try and get some more aerodynamic performance out of the car and really it was wrong. Every circuit is hard on brakes anyway these days because you are always pushing everything as far as you can but here we just stepped over the limit obviously. Ralf finished sixth after conserving his brakes to the finish. I don't want to call it the team's fault. The team does its best to give us the best possible cars and I don't call it a mistake, it was just pushing it very far, a bit over the limit. But it was possible to finish the race. Spanish GP qualifying: Ralf qualified in sixth position and blamed a 'very nervous' FW26 racer particularly through the middle intermediate. "Of course I'm not happy" he barked at reporters. "It's clear I didn't get the best out of the car" Ralf speaking before the Spanish GP: He admitted making 'silly mistakes' while denying that he has lost motivation as Williams struggle to match Ferrari's pace. He bristled at technical director Patrick Head's criticism of his qualifying at Imola. "I'd rather concentrate on my driving bit and he should concentrate on his design bit and get the car right. That would make my life a lot easier. I still believe Williams is and has been a very good team. I still believe in Patrick's ability to turn things around. We have very good people" Ralf however didn't expect Spain to be much better for the team than Imola. "We had a difficult weekend in Imola already and I think the problem will be slightly bigger here because we haven't changed anything on the car. I would not expect to be stronger than Ferrari or BAR at the moment. I think we have to watch that we stay as close as possible to BAR and not get caught by Renault" Ralf blamed problems with Williams' radically-designed car for part of the reason for his disappointing start to the campaign: I have been a long time in this team, working very hard, and in general I still believe that Williams is and always has been a very strong team and I still believe in the ability of the engineers. We have very good people and it is just putting them together. I always try to do well. It is nothing to do with the situation for me. It is not that it will depend on a few good race results and it is not about the future, anyway. I am basically pretty angry with myself if things don't work out the way I want them to. I don't think so much about other things. I am pretty motivated, and basically just pissed off with what has happened this year with my own performance and the car. Ralf takes you on a lap around the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain: Barcelona is a technically demanding circuit with fast corners and high grip. This means that we have to endure extreme G-forces of sometimes over 4 G. The first critical point comes right after the start: before the Elf right-hand corner we have to brake from over 300 km/h to 120 km/h. A real bottleneck. A left-hand corner is followed by the Curvone Renault, a sweeping, very fast right-hand corner that we take in 5th gear at roughly 255 km/h. On the short straight we speed up to 290 km/h, before dropping to 2nd gear to enter the Repsol corner at 120 km/h. The Seat hairpin bend is, at roughly 85 km/h, the slowest corner. Accelerating out of it, the course twists into a slight bend. We reach over 250 km/h here before arriving at the braking point of the Würth left-hand corner. A short, uphill straight then leads to the Campsa corner. It's vital to have as much speed as possible going into this 4th-gear corner. We drive right over the kerbs and exit the corner at 200 km/h. On the Nissan straight, at 295 km/h, we come up to the very slow, and very bumpy, hairpin bend La Caixa, which is followed immediately by the next hairpin bend, Banc de Sabadell. Both corners are taken in 2nd gear. They are followed by the last two corners, at the same time the best and fastest on the entire circuit: the Europcar is taken at 225 km/h, the second one, New Holland, we take in 4th gear at 265 km/h and, as we exit the corner, we still have 225 km/h on the clock. Naturally, we try to get up as much speed as possible as we head for the start-finish straight. Ralf thinks JPM should stop whingeing: JPM is still seething about what he believes Michael did to him in the San Marino GP and plans to have a word with race director Charlie Whiting about it. Although the Imola race took place two weeks ago Montoya hasn't forgotten his incident with Michael, which resulted in him being nudged onto the grass and Michael going on to win the race. And Montoya now wants clarification on the incident, which he believes was the result of an illegal move. "How can you have a one-move rule in Formula One and then have Michael Schumacher move left and then right and do nothing about it? That's two moves" Ralf believes it's about time Montoya let it go and moved on: I think Montoya should stop whingeing about it and focus on his driving. It's unrealistic to criticise Michael and then do what he did to me. Ralf, though, also has a query regarding his own incident with Fernando Alonso. "I had to go to see the stewards after the race and they said to me that if he's alongside, then you've got to give him room. But how far alongside is alongside? I want clarification on that too" Montoya branded Michael 'blind or stupid' after they collided at the San Marino GP two weeks ago. Ralf sided with Michael: At the end of the day it's normal to try and defend a position. Juan just seems to complain a lot about other people instead of looking after his own driving style. I think to try and overtake someone on the outside -- he should know that doesn't work, especially when you are half a car behind. Montoya then aggressively defended his position as Ralf tried to squeeze past. "There's no reason for him to complain just as there wasn't a reason to complain on my side" said Ralf of both incidents. Montoya said he had not changed his opinion. Ralf backed his brother after Juan Pablo re-opened a tirade of criticism aimed against him: "At the end of the day, this is racing. The problem is this guy in the field screaming at others. In my view, it was the wrong thing to do in a press conference". But not only that, Ralf continued, Juan Pablo has no leg to stand on because after tangling with Michael, he blocked Ralf on the straight. "I saw the stewards afterwards and they told me I have to give room. But I want clarification on how far alongside he has to be" Ralf on Spanish GP testing: Even though we couldn't complete the whole of the scheduled test programme due to the bad weather at Silverstone this week, every single member of the team certainly has the enthusiasm and motivation to improve upon our performance. We tested in Barcelona quite a lot over the winter period so we should be well prepared for the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. I don't think miracles should be expected, but it's clear we are able to fight for podium positions, like we did in Imola, and collecting as many points as possible is the most important thing. The San Marino GP incident between Ralf and Montoya: Battling to retain third place after a failed attempt to take second off Michael, which resulted in a trip across the grass, Montoya returned the favour, but to the other Schumacher. He forced Ralf to take to the grass to prevent an accident, the manouvre costing Ralf momentum and a position. However, while Montoya is seething about Michael's 'unfair' move on him, Ralf's not holding any grudges against his team-mate. "It was a difficult race. At first there was the early battle with my team-mate that ended with Juan Pablo defending his position. But it was okay with me as I would have acted exactly the same way had I been in his position" Ralf finished 7th at The San Marino GP: Until the incident with Alonso I was quite happy with the weekend in general, obviously it was a shame what happened. It was good to score some points and I think we made the best out of our package today. It's pretty clear that we have to improve but we are not that far away. Ralf qualified 5th at the San Marino GP: On one hand I am not unhappy because I know I have made the most out of the car, but on the other hand we were struggling with a couple of minor problems throughout the weekend and could not get rid of them completely. However I am pretty confident for the race as I believe my car is very well prepared. By the way, congratulations to Jenson on his first pole! San Marino GP Practice: On a nice Italian sunny day, JPM and Ralf were 7th and 10th fastest respectively at the end of the second Free Practice session for the San Marino Grand Prix. Ralf: First of all, I must say that for once I am not worried about not being at the top, since today we only concentrated on our job-list. We were able to go through our programme just as we wished to, with no problems at all. There is still room for improvement and I've got quite a lot of work ahead. Furthermore, the tyre choice will be crucial, even if I am sure we will make the right decision. Ralf talks about The San Marino GP: As Imola was the venue of Ralf's maiden race victory it is a circuit he's very fond of. This year, though, Ralf wants P1 but admits it's going to be a tough task. "I won my first ever F1 race at San Marino three years ago, so I always like to return to Imola. However, we need to concentrate on this year. At the moment, it is much more important for us to completely focus on improving our package in order to gradually reduce the gap to Ferrari. Miracles should not be expected from us in Imola, but the circuit has always suited our car. During our most recent tests at Barcelona and Paul Ricard, we have made improvements, so I believe we will be able to close the gap to the front runners" For the European season opener at Imola on 25th April, Ralf is determined to turn things round. "The situation is different to what it was last year when we were able to make it from zero to hero in a very short period of time. This year we will have to work hard to close the gap step by step, but I’m sure that at the end of the day we will make it... Those who believe that we simply have to click our fingers to close the gap to Ferrari are in for a disappointment. On the one hand, Michael will not rest on his laurels, and on the other hand there is a lot of refinement work waiting for us" Work which will be continued this week during the team’s test at Le Castellet. The BMW WilliamsF1 Team hopes to have achieved a significant improvement in performance in time for the San Marino Grand Prix, but Ralf warns that quite a healthy dose of patience may be necessary. "This will take some time. On the other hand I have to say that - to be honest - we haven’t got too much time. That said I am convinced that we are moving in the right direction" The ‘Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari’ near Imola is one of Ralf’s favourite circuits. In the past three years, he has always secured a top-four result, and indeed won the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix, his first ever Formula One victory. |
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