Ralf: Williams Will Take Time to Turn Around

Williams may have to wait until next year for management changes at the Formula One team to have a real impact on performance, says Ralf Schumacher.

"It will take Sam a while," he told a European Grand Prix news conferences when asked how soon he expected to see an improvement after the promotion of Australian Sam Michael as technical director.

"I'm sure Sam will do great things with Williams but there's all the existing structure and things have to be changed. The cars are still the same so you won't turn it around overnight," he added.

"It will take at least three or four races until we see some slight changes but the biggest change will certainly be next year."

Michael, formerly chief operations engineer, took over from Williams co-owner Patrick Head in a restructuring announced on Tuesday to make the team more competitive after Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won the first five races of the year.

BMW-powered Williams, who finished one-two at the Nurburgring last season, are fourth in the Championship after six races. Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf's teammate, is leaving to join McLaren in 2005 and agreed that he would be unlikely to benefit much from the changes.

"Probably the biggest effect on the team is going to be a long-term effect, rather than a short-term one, and in the long-term I am not there so...," he said.

"(Michael) is probably going to try to push the team harder to come up with more goods. Hopefully it can improve because I am still driving the car and I would like to have a quicker car," he said.

"It is a matter of time, so we have to wait and see what happens. I cannot go and say, you know, Sam is in a higher position so now we are going to win."