On Sunday 7th March, the WilliamsF1 BMW FW26 will make its race debut at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, host to the Australian Grand Prix, the inaugural race of the 2004 season.
The Formula One fraternity is enveloped by a sense of excitement and anticipation that inevitably accompanies the start of a new Championship but the traditional intrigue that surrounds the relative potential of a grid of new cars will abate when the cars take to the track for the first time in under a week.
Over the four month winter break, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team has completed an intensive test program, covering over 20,000 kilometres in five European countries over 33 days. With the FW26 coming on-line earlier than in previous years, so it would be fully competitive from the outset, the team is relatively upbeat for the season ahead.
In the three previous Australian GP’s since joining forces with BMW Williams, Juan Pablo Montoya has had mixed fortunes. In his debut race back in 2001 the Colombian driver was forced to retire from a points position in the final stages of the event due to an engine problem. The following year he secured a second place finish after teammate Ralf Schumacher crashed out of the race on the first corner.
Then last year, he spun while in the lead of the race, just ten laps from the finish, forfeiting his chances of winning but still coming home in second place. After Montoya's incident, David Coulthard went on to win, but Montoya is determined to make up for his mistake this time around.
I can't wait for the racing to start again. Winter testing is hard work and not particularly rewarding because you can't tell where you are in relation to the competition. When you come to the first race, you can see what everybody else has done over the winter and how good you're going to be in comparison,” he said. “I am very confident going into this season; I think that the FW26 is going to be competitive straightaway, unlike the FW25 which needed quite a lot of work before its potential could be exploited. I expect our main competitors will be very strong. We will be fighting with Ferrari and McLaren again, but I think there might be some surprises from Renault and B.A.R. as well.”
“With regards to the new rules, qualifying is going to be totally different from last year. I don't think you are ever going to see a true qualifying performance because the first run will be on low fuel but with race set-up which means that the car will suffer with understeer. Not having fully automatic gearboxes is a bit strange but I'm used to it now having run it over the winter. I'm not so worried about the new engine rule as we've had a good reliability record throughout testing. I really like Australia, especially Melbourne. I finished second there in '02 and '03, but obviously I'd like to improve on that this time round!”
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