BMW Critical of Williams' 'Weak' Showing

Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld could manage no better than 12th and 14th in the Magny-Cours race after suffering from technical problems in the heavily revised FW27.

And it was just the kind of result that the team did not need, so soon after BMW announced that it was terminating its current contract with Williams at the end of the year and buying Sauber.

Theissen clearly feels that the problem lies with the team after emphasising that BMW's engines ran without fault during the Grand Prix.

"The race was as weak as the qualifying," he said. "Neither of our drivers had a chance to improve. Towards the end of the race, both cars suffered mechanical problems, which need to be analyzed. The engines ran without problem.

"Before the Grand Prix in Silverstone we need to analyse the data of this weekend in order to find the reason for our weak performance here. Testing would be helpful in this situation, but is impossible due to the calendar."

Williams technical director Sam Michael backed Theissen's view that an urgent investigation was needed to get to the bottom of the team's current problems.

"It was a disappointing race for the team. The performance was not our normal level and we will make the necessary investigations back at the factory.

"We also had mechanical problems on both cars that we could also see on the data on the pitwall. We now need to disassemble and reassemble the cars to confirm what parts have failed in the drive line."

Webber's race was affected by a heat problem in the cockpit, which forced the team to throw buckets of water over him during pitstops to keep him cool. Even so, he needed medical help after the race.

"It was very uncomfortable to race in that condition and as a result, I now have a large raw burn on my right hip which the doctor has treated."

Heidfeld struggled with a major handling problem throughout the end of the race, which he believed was a suspension fault but may have been down a differential failure.