BMW boss Theissen says there’s more work to do

Both Williams and British American Racing concluded their six-day test at Kyalami today, with Ralf Schumacher again coming out on top, giving Thiessen reason to be optimistic.

"The test has been very useful for us," said Theissen. "Before Kyalami, we found solutions for several problems that occurred during the last test session in Barcelona and they were all resolved - that's why we've managed a lot of mileage over the last six days. There is still some work to do around the periphery of the V10, such as cooling system, oil system and mapping. Subsequently, our engineers in Munich have already started work on these three tasks."

Schumacher, who won't test again before the opening Grand Prix of the year in Melbourne on March 4, set the fastest time despite striking a bird which damaged his cooling system. A rainstorm at lunchtime also hampered the testing, although Williams has managed to accumulate over 2700km of running this week.

"I ran the Melbourne specification engine today because it was my last in the car before Melbourne," said Ralf. "I worked on tyre construction tests this morning and then moved on to some longer runs until the heavy showers interrupted us."

Montoya will test again at Barcelona next week, and admits he's not quite prepared yet for the season-opener next month: "I still have some work to do before my first Formula One race start and I will address this in Barcelona," he said.

The Colombian suffered engine trouble today, restricting him to the third-quickest time. Olivier Panis was second quickest as he took over from Jacques Villeneuve in the new BAR 03 today, and lapped 0.4secs slower than Schumacher.



1 Ralf Schumacher, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m19.996s, 54
2 Olivier Panis, BAR-Honda (2001) 1m20.330s, 92
3 Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW (2001) 1m21.010s, 41