Italy Preview Quotes: Williams

Mark Webber: "Monza is a circuit that stands alone in terms of set-up. It's a very, very high speed circuit where we are looking for a maximum speed all the time. I've finished in the points on this track in the last couple of years and I hope that we can do that again this time. We might not quite have the pace of McLaren and Renault, but I think we can get a reasonable result. If we can get some good, solid points it will be not a bad race for us. Ever since my first year in Formula One, when I drove for Minardi, I've spent a lot of time in Italy, not far from Imola, and I can say it's definitely among my favourite few countries. I love coming to Italy. The Italians love cycling and the food's excellent, it's just a fantastic country."

Sam Michael (Technical Director): "Monza stands out from other circuits due to the fact that it is dominated by long straights, a couple of chicanes and four important corners, top speeds will also be the highest that we've seen all year. Set-up demands very low drag, in order to achieve this, we use specific front and rear wings unique to Monza. It is important to have a good balance through the medium speed corners and for the car to handle well over the curbs. To address the tyre incidents that we experienced in Istanbul, we have worked through all the possible variables, such as pressure and camber, with Michelin. In the Williams R&D labs at Grove we also performed some loaded tyre tests to check what type of deflections the tyres would have seen during the lap. Finally, at the test in Monza last week, we went through various trims of the bodywork to ensure that there is no possibility for the tyre to touch anything on the car. We also worked through cooling levels, brake set-ups and tyre evaluations to select the optimum configuration for the FW27 in preparation for the race."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "Monza is an outstanding circuit for engines and, as such, is always a very special Grand Prix for BMW. The cars are flat out for 69 percent of the lap, the highest full-throttle ratio of any Formula One circuit. Monza ranks among the top few circuits where engines have to operate on a sustained full throttle over various parts of the track. On the current F1 calendar, there are three similar full-throttle sections which demand everything of the engines. Topping the league is Spa (1,821 metres, if Eau Rouge is taken flat out). Almost on a par is Indianapolis (1,820 metres), followed by Monza (1,268 metres). When it comes to speed, Monza outstrips all other race tracks. In 2004, Juan Pablo Montoya set an F1 record in pre-qualifying when he recorded an average speed of 262.242 km/h. Antonio Pizzonia also claimed a Formula One record with a top speed of 369.9 km/h during the race. For the Italian Grand Prix, we will have new BMW P84/5 engines, as scheduled. In Turkey, we had a good chance of scoring points before we suffered a disappointing setback. Our goal, however, remains unchanged; we want to end the 2005 season with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team with some good results."